Growing Up on the Hellmouth
by LadyLefaye
Summary: Set during Blood Ties. What if Dawn had run back into the night after finding out that she is the Key? DawnSpike
1. Chapter 1

Spike leaned against the tree outside the Summers' house, the words he had said earlier echoing through his head. _They sent the key to her ... in human form. In the form of a sister._

To him the statement in the Watcher's journal had been an amusing revelation...so the little kitten was more than she seemed. Good for her. But to Dawn, the words meant so much more. They heralded the end of her world as she knew it. Suddenly, reality made no sense. Everything she had thought to be true was a lie…an artificial story jammed inside her artificial mind. Spike had to hand it to her though. She had looked like she was going to curl up into a ball and sob her eyes out, but instead she slowly got to her feet and quietly said, "take me home, Spike."

"Since when did I become a soddin' babysitter for the Slayer's kid sister?"

These words had been on the tip of his tongue, but after glancing at the haunted look in Dawn's eyes, he kept his mouth shut. Spike walked with her in awkward silence while she trudged along in a zombie-like state. Once they arrived at her home, she went inside without so much as a "thank you, Spike."

Now the blond vampire leaned against his tree and watched the house. He tried to convince himself he was there for purely selfish reasons. There were bound to be fireworks when everyone found out that Dawn had snuck out, and he always did enjoy a spot of violence. He crushed his cigarette into the ground. Yeah, he was just there to watch the fireworks. Not because he cared sod all for either of the Summers girls.

Spike was jolted from his reverie by the sound of screaming. A chorus of "Oh my God's" echoed through the house. "What do you know, I get to see a touch of violence after all," Spike said to himself, an expectant grin on his face.

With preternatural hearing, Spike listened to the sound of several pairs of feet running up the stairs. Inside, Dawn was roughly shoving her mother and sister out of her room. "Get out, get out, get out!" she screamed. Spike then heard a door slam and the sound of a bolt sliding into a lock.

Inside, it seemed like all the women were crying. "I didn't think the little nibblet could cause such a fuss," Spike muttered. "I wonder what naughty things she's been up to."

As he listened to the commotion, his head was filled with thoughts of the Slayer, warm and pliable, crying against his chest in frustration. She would seek him out for comfort, and he would dutifully kiss it all better. But again he was torn away from his thoughts by a sound coming from the house. This time it was the window being opened as Dawn snuck out for the second time that night.

"What do you know, a baby Buffy," Spike said with a hint of annoyance. "You'd think Joyce would have had brains enough to not give the kid Buffy's old room. That tree is just the perfect escape route."

The tree was also perfect for observing, as he recalled. Angelus had spent hours there, watching Buffy until the first rays of dawn peaked over the horizon. He would sketch and sketch away with plans to torment her. Spike had tried to follow in his grandsire's footsteps and observe Buffy from that same perch, only to be rudely disappointed. Instead of getting a glimpse at the private sanctuary of his Slayer, he was greeted with the horrifying vision of a 14-year-old bouncing around to the music of N' Sync (if one could call it music). But with memories of Angelus haunting her, Spike could understand why the typically possessive Slayer had been willing to give up her old room.

As Spike watched, Dawn slowly climbed down the tree, her progress oddly hampered because she was only using one arm. With a thud she landed on the ground. A wild look was in her eyes, and she began running without care for direction or what might meet her on her way to nowhere. She just needed to run. Spike left his visions of Buffy behind and turned to follow Dawn. If she got hurt out there, he knew that the Slayer would somehow manage to blame it on him...she always did.

Spike kept a moderate distance behind Dawn to avoid being noticed. "Best to let the kitten spend all her energy before I play 'Daddy Spike' and take her home," he thought to himself.

Dawn's meanderings took them to the middle of the cemetery, not too far from Spike's own crypt. Suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks, her breath coming in heavy pants. She collapsed into a ball of tears, gasping and sobbing at the same time. Spike also stopped abruptly. The wind had changed and suddenly he could smell it all around him. Blood. Innocent and intoxicating.

"Bloody hell! Stupid chit must have hurt herself in that damned tree."

Spike inched closer with a cat-like grace, moving slowly to prevent Dawn from being startled and bolting again. However, he had not fed on fresh human blood in ages (the fancy government knick knack jammed into his skull saw to that), and as he drew nearer, his hunger began to cloud his senses. Unconsciously, he took on the air of a hunter stalking its wounded prey, and so fixated was he on Dawn's huddled form that he didn't even notice that he was not the only predator prowling the night. At least half a dozen other vampires in the vicinity were also steadily creeping closer to the bleeding girl, intent on claiming her as their own.

With a jolt, Spike was torn from his trance-like state as one of his unseen rivals tried to tackle him to the ground. "She's mine! I saw her first!" the fledgling vampire cried.

With a roar, Spike rammed his fist into the young vampire's chest and ripped out his heart, not even bothering with a stake. As the dust cleared, Spike leapt to his feet, suddenly painfully aware of the other vampires that were forming a circle around Dawn. Like sharks, they were drawn to the scent of her blood.

Punch. Kick. Stake. Spike was a whirl of motion as he fought ferociously to keep the other vampires from laying a finger on Dawn. Luckily, the fact that none of them wanted to share was on his side. Just as he felt certain one of them would reach Dawn before he could save her, another vampire would jump in and attack, trying selfishly to be the only one to claim the prize. If they had fought as a unit, Spike would have been hard-pressed to keep her safe. But vampires were rarely known for their selflessness, a fact that Spike used to his advantage as he fought.

Outwardly, he convinced himself that he was fighting so fiercely because Dawn was important to the Slayer, perhaps even to all bloody human kind, but inwardly, he knew he was just as selfish as the vampires he fought. His demon had scented the power in her blood, and was screaming "MINE!" One by one the young vampires fell, all of them too foolish to think of working together to secure their prey. Alone, none of them could match the skill Spike had acquired after over a hundred years worth of killing and maiming.

When the dust from the last vampire had settled, Spike pulled Dawn to her feet with a rough yank. "What do ya think you're doing, you stupid bint? Do you _want_ to get yourself killed?"

"Leave me alone Spike," Dawn said with a listless tone to her voice, as if she had not even noticed her near brush with death. "I'm not important. I'm not even real. It doesn't matter what happens to me."

Spike gave her a shake. "We'll have none of that talk, you hear? Get inside... now!" Spike dragged the near-limp girl into his crypt. He slammed the door shut and piled several large slabs of stone in front of it. "That should keep most of the nasties out for the time being."

Flinging his duster over one of the coffins, Spike went to take a seat on his couch next to where the forlorn girl had collapsed. He was overcome by a wave of hunger as the smell of her blood washed over him again, but he forced himself to remain in control. Cautiously, Spike took a look at her arm, the source of the smell, and gasped at what he saw. There was one long cut down the middle and several horizontal slashes that looked a bit fresher. All of them were rather deep and still seeping blood. And he doubted that any of them were a result of her inability to climb a down a tree properly. It was quite obvious, now that he'd gotten a closer look, that these wounds had been intentionally inflicted.

Gently, he placed his fingers under her chin and turned her head towards him. "Hell, luv. What did ya go and do this for?"

Dawn leaned against Spike's shoulder, staring vacantly out at the crypt as tears ran down her face. "I wanted to know if I was real…if I was human," she said quietly. "Not some mystical ball of energy. Mystical balls of energy don't bleed, right?"

Dawn's voice became hitched as her silent tears gave way to shuddering sobs. "I'm just not sure of anything anymore. What am I? Is this really blood coming out of me or something else?"

"It's real enough for me," Spike whispered as another pang of hunger washed over him.

"What do you mean?" Dawn asked, a hopeful look flitting across her face.

"I mean that I could care sod all whether you're a mystical ball of energy or just the Slayer's kid sister. That doesn't mean anything to the likes of me. Or to your family, I'd gather. You're you no matter how you came about, and that's all that really matters."

For a moment, Dawn was still, and Spike feared that he was going to have to deal with another bought of hysterical weeping. But then, as his words sank in, a small smile spread across Dawn's face.

"Thank you, Spike," she said softly, wrapping her good arm around his neck and pulling him into a tight embrace. "You know, for a vampire, you're actually rather sweet."

Spike groaned. Both at being called sweet (which chaffed against his demonly nature) and because her proximity was intensifying the scent of her blood. It was getting to be too much. So close yet so far away. Without realizing it, a low growl emanated from the back of his throat, and he began to unconsciously nuzzle her neck as he fought to keep his gold-flecked eyes from straying to her arm.

Dawn tensed at the feeling of Spike's lips grazing her throat. "Spike, what are you doing?" she whispered, pulling back to look him in the face.

Eyes flashing back and forth between blue and gold stared into her own. Fear and excitement replaced her self-pity as she witnessed the raw hunger she saw there. Suddenly, being the Key didn't seem to matter so much. Not when faced with such visceral desires.

Before she could pause to convince herself that this was a bad idea, Dawn shifted so that she was straddling Spike's legs, her eyes never leaving his own. Spike let out a groan as she shifted against him, his hands clamping down on her hips, whether to prevent her from pushing closer or to keep her from escaping, she couldn't tell. Spike closed his eyes and let out a shuddering gasp, leaning his head against her shoulder as he tried to control his desire to feed.

With a daring she didn't know she possessed, she turned Spike's head towards her face once again. Tentatively, she dipped her finger into the blood pooled in her other hand and ran it over Spike's lips. The gesture was intimate and pure and filled with a trust that Spike probably did not deserve. But the revelation about Dawn's true identity had given her a new boldness, and she found herself not caring if she was "too young" to be acting in such a way or if he was "too dangerous" for her. All that mattered was that he keep looking at her with that hunger in his eyes…the hunger that vampires reserve for their prey…their _human_ prey.

A thrill went through Spike as the taste of her blood filled his mouth. Without thinking, he moaned softly and began to suckle her finger like it was his last meal, pressing closer and closer every second. It had been ages since he'd received such innocent blood freely given, and he felt like he could spend the entire night devouring her. The taste of it was too much, and he could sense his demon surfacing completely, and with it the haze of the feed began to overcome him again. Without thinking, he wrapped his arms around her and bent his head towards her open wounds. As he pulled her closer, a rising panic began to erode Dawn's newfound boldness.

"Wait!" she gasped, tensing against his firm grip. "It's too fast…it's all too fast."

"What am I to you?" Dawn asked, trying to gain perspective on a situation that was rapidly spiraling out of control. "Am I just a quick meal? Or is there something more? Do you even like me?"

A feral growl escaped Spike's lips. If he had been able, he would have torn her neck open and bathed in her blood for her daring to think she had a say in whether or not he continued to feed. But the chip…the damn bane of his existence, sent tingling warnings of pain through his brain…keeping him leashed…keeping his demon at bay. So Spike forced himself to pause, managing to choke out the word "What!" without sounding too much like a crazed, half-starved beast.

"Do you like me?" Dawn asked again, as if Spike were some teenage boy who had tried to make out with her after a school dance.

Through the fog of his blood-lust, Spike barely managed a coherent reply. "I like you well enough for a kid, I suppose."

Dawn stiffened, various emotions filling her as she contemplated being referred to as a mere "kid."

"I'm not a 'kid' you know," she said pensively. "I think we learned that well enough today. My essence is ancient."

Spike forced his demon to subside for the time being. He had to be calm so he could address her concerns. After all, if she panicked, he would end up with nothing more than a blinding headache for his troubles, and he desperately longed for another taste of her blood. Pausing for a deep breath, he mustered up his most charming smile.

"Your essence may be ancient, but you have the body of a child," Spike said with a smirk, trying to lighten her mood.

"I'm almost 15, I'll have you know," Dawn replied automatically, ignoring the fact that technically she hadn't been in human form nearly that long.

"Fifteen, you say. If I were human, they'd lock me away for being in such a compromising position with someone so young," Spike replied with a wink.

"Fifteen isn't that young," Dawn protested. "That's old enough to get married in some places."

"Well luv, I'm not really the marrying sort. I'm more the bachelor type, being a vampire and all. Churches and priests tend to rub me the wrong way, if ya know what I mean. But the plus side to all that is that I don't have much of a problem corrupting impressionable young things such as yourself…so long as it doesn't end with me facing the wrong end of stake at your sister's hands."

Dawn had been relaxing under Spike's charm, but at the mention of her sister, a new set of fears entered her mind. After all, Spike had been all but stalking the Slayer for months now.

"Am I prettier than Buffy?" Dawn blurted out, immediately wincing when she realized just how immature that question sounded. So much for her "ancient essence" lending her a bit of maturity.

Spike raised his eyebrow as if to say, "Is there even a right answer to this?" But Dawn just chewed her lip with a nervous look on her face, so Spike took a deep breath and tried to answer in a way that would not cause her to become a quivering mass of tears yet again.

"You are different than Buffy, kitten. She is steel and fire. You are innocence and light. Pure ambrosia. I fancy you both in different ways, I suppose. Although you do have the added bonus of lacking that guaranteed punch to the face every time I touch you."

Dawn smiled at Spike's words, warmth filling her at the realization that he truly did seem to care for her just the way she was. His patience and acceptance of everything that was happening was like a balm, soothing away her fears and doubts.

"Do you still want to feed from me?" she asked nervously.

Spike grabbed her chin roughly, letting his demon come to the front once more. "Look at me, nibblet. Do you see this? I am a vampire. I have no problem taking advantage of a 14 year old girl. As a matter of fact, I've tasted younger. Even with this chip I could drain you dry...you're already all opened up and ripe for the plucking. Are you sure you're ready to let the big bad wolf in? Because you know very well that I'm starving for you, and I don't know if I'll be able to stop myself again if you suddenly have another pang of conscience."

Dawn ran her fingernail over her cut, tearing away the thin protective layer that had formed when her blood clotted. At her actions, fresh blood oozed to the surface. "I trust you Spike. Please? I...I want this."

He couldn't take it any more. He had done the honourable thing and warned her about what she was getting into. But the chit was literally begging for it. And Spike certainly wasn't one to deny himself fresh blood when it was being freely offered…especially when it was being offered by beautiful, young slip of a thing. With deliberate slowness, Spike pushed Dawn down onto the couch until she was lying flat on her back. Crawling over her, he took her arm and lifted it to his mouth, suckling gently at her wrist.

Dawn gasped as she felt his cold tongue lapping at her wounds. A slight tingle began to creep all over her skin as her body responded to his touch. She tried to keep her thoughts calm, as befitting of someone ancient and powerful, but she couldn't fool herself. Her inner teenager was squealing with delight. She had a sexy vampire feeding from her after all. A sexy vampire that she'd been crushing on for ages! And with that fact firmly in mind, Dawn decided that maybe growing up on the Hellmouth wouldn't be so bad after all.


	2. Chapter 2

"Feed from me."

These were words Spike thought he would never hear from one of the Summers girls. Sure, he may have been pining away for the blonder of the two sisters, but Dawn was just as much a mystery as her older sister. Both of them had this uncanny way of doing the totally unexpected, leaving him at a loss for words.

It must have been the chip, or maybe a vision of a slimmer Spike, neatly fitting inside of a dust buster, that made him try to convince Dawn that offering up her lifeblood to a soulless, starving vampire wasn't perhaps the wisest decision she'd ever made. Then she'd thrown him for a loop again. Instead of getting all teary-eyed and running away, she took her nail and re-opened her wound. For him, it was as erotic as a lover spreading her legs. The intent was the same. It screamed, "come on in."

Spike didn't need any more convincing. It took all his strength not to drain her then and there. Chip or no, she was begging for it. That should make the chip inactive right? He certainly didn't want to _hurt_ her. He had screaming of an entirely different sort in mind. He knew from many years of first hand experience, both giving and receiving, that a vampire's kiss could be either brutal or erotic. For her, he would make it pleasurable. After all, it's not every day an innocent opens a vein for you.

Slowly he brought his mouth to her arm. First, he leisurely licked his way up her wrist, his tongue tracing the grooves the knife had left in its wake. Then he took her hand and cleaned it, sucking off every last drop of blood that had pooled there while they talked. He could feel her responding to his touch. Her eyes were closed, and her head was tilted back with her mouth slightly ajar. No doubt the little kitten had never even had a man touch her, let alone ravage her body with his mouth. Spike took great pleasure in the thought that he was the first one to explore this unspoiled territory. And Dawn certainly didn't seem to have any complaints.

Dawn was beyond complaint or worry. She was so overwhelmed by the sensations she was experiencing that she didn't know what to do. She could feel his cold tongue pushing into her arm, cleaning her cuts and lapping up the blood. And while his tongue was cold, she felt warm all over. She had never felt so precious or desired, never felt so alive. And that was what she needed...to feel alive. To feel like a human with human responses, not some mystical Key that was to be used in a battle of the gods. Spike was touching her, needing her. Her blood was helping keep him alive, and somewhere deep inside, she took great satisfaction from that. But the only thoughts she could muster up were, "don't stop...please...please, don't stop!" Not that she said any of this out loud though. Only small little sighs managed to escape from her lips as she tried her best to maintain some sense of decorum.

Spike suckled Dawn's arm until there was no blood left on the skin. Until it was again a milky white arm with only harsh red lines to mar the surface. The blood flow stopped as the cuts began to form a protective layer once again. Lazily, he continued to lavish wet kisses on her arm, no longer feeding, simply worshipping the fount of blood with his mouth. His thirst was far from quenched, and her racing heart indicated that she was thoroughly enjoying herself, but he didn't want to risk taking too much. She was a little girl and only had so much to offer before the blood loss began to take a toll. The desire for future feedings helped him to keep his ever-present thirst in check.

However, if his self-imposed restraint was to last much longer, Spike knew he had to put some distance between himself and the trembling girl beneath him. It was readily apparent that _she _wasn't going to put a halt to the festivities any time soon.

Reluctantly, Spike pushed himself up. When Dawn let out a whimper of protest, Spike shakily said "I gather we've both had enough for one evening, wouldn't you say? We wouldn't want to overdo it on the first go 'round."

Dawn looked up at Spike with dreamy eyes and clutched his hand, pulling him back to her side. "Don't leave me Spike. You…you make me feel better. I don't want you to stop."

"Nibblet, if I don't stop soon, you won't have a drop of blood left to your name." Despite his protests, he couldn't help but lean over her again. Supporting himself on one arm, he gently took her wrist again. Perhaps a few more sips wouldn't hurt anything.

"No, Spike"

Spike's brow furrowed in confusion, but he immediately stopped his progress. "Um, luv. You're sending off some mixed signals here. I'm afraid I don't speak teenager, so why don't you tell me…what _do_ you want?"

Dawn cupped Spike's face in her hand, trying to muster up the courage to ask for what she truly desired. She wanted him to do more than catch a few wayward drops from her self-inflicted wounds. She wanted to feel his teeth in her neck…she wanted him to actually feed. Biting her lip nervously, she tilted her head to the side. "Here…I want you to bite me here."

He moaned at her words as a new wave of hunger washed over him. She had her eyes closed and an expectant look on her face, like a little lamb to the slaughter, and Spike's demon roared inside of him. "DRAIN HER DRY!" was its command. Somewhere in the back of his mind, images of dust busters were floating around, but Spike was through protesting. If the little chit wanted him so badly, who was he to deny her?

Spike placed a kiss over her pulse point and deliberately let his fangs graze her neck. He could feel her body arching into his embrace as her nails raked over his back, and he was a bit shocked by the extent of her desire. Most people were a bit more frightened when faced with the prospect of actually having their lifeblood sucked out. Although, he certainly wasn't going to complain. It did make him wonder though, just how far Dawn would go to fulfill this fantasy of hers.

He nibbled gently on her neck once more, grinning at the soft mewling sounds Dawn was making. "Kitten I'm touched. Really I am. But I have this chip you see. If I didn't know better, I'd say the thing takes great pleasure in sending little zigzags of electricity all over my brain. If you _really_ want this, you're going to have to do something for me."

Dawn's expectant eyes looked into Spike's golden ones. She gave him her "I'm braver than you think" look and boldly said, "I want this, Spike. I'm sure of it. What do I have to do?"

A positively wicked look crept over his face.

"Beg for me, kitten."


	3. Chapter 3

Spike grinned down at the petite girl with a look only a predator could have. He was fairly certain he didn't need her to beg to keep the chip dormant, but hell, he _wanted_ her to. He missed the sound of a woman pleading, whether it was for him to spare her life or for something a bit more...recreational. After all, a vampire doesn't live by blood alone.

Dawn looked up at Spike with an incredulous look on her face. For a second, her eyes flashed defiantly. She appeared frighteningly Buffyesque with a look that shouted "I do not beg!" Then Spike began to lick her throat. Soft, gentle strokes that were teasing enough to be very frustrating. When his teeth touched her neck again, they were blunt, and he softly nipped her there.

The moment she felt his teeth against her skin, Dawn's resolve crumbled. This was her fantasy, sprung from reading far too many cheap vampire romance novels (which she studiously hid from Buffy to avoid the inevitable lecture on what vampires were _really_ like). The fact that it was Spike, someone she had wanted from almost the first moment she saw him, made her desire even more acute. She had to know what it was like for him to feed from her, and if she turned him down now, she might never have this sort of opportunity again.

With a deep breath, Dawn let her defiance drain from her and allowed herself to revel in the sensations Spike was creating. He continued to languidly lavish kisses on her neck while his fingers idly roamed up and down her body. Although it had been less than a year since she was created, Dawn was growing up rapidly. She had been "born" with much knowledge artificially imposed into her brain, and the Hellmouth had a way of making anyone grow up quickly, but none of that had prepared her for the burning desire she was feeling now. For the first time she knew what it was like to experience something more than a school-girl's crush. What Spike was kindling in her was nothing short of lust, and she embraced it openly, longing for anything that would make her feel more human.

Arching her body into him, she whispered into his ear, "I need you Spike. Please... "

"I...I beg you," she said softly.

Spike groaned as she said those words. His demon reveled in the begging...wanting to feel powerful again after so much humiliation. Spike grabbed the back of Dawn's hair and pulled her face to his. Making sure she was paying rapt attention, he let his face morph once again. Fangs elongated and ridges appeared on his forehead. He half expected her to lose her nerve and demand to be taken home, but Dawn's next move sent a thrill through him. Spike nearly lost his control when instead of being fearful, Dawn leaned forward and kissed the ridges on his brow, gently cupping his face in her tiny hands. The gesture of acceptance caused him to stiffen, his eyes widening in shock. There would be no turning back now.

With a gentleness unknown to most vampires, Spike placed his lips on Dawn's throat. It was her first time, so he sank into her slowly, his teeth tenderly penetrating the soft skin of her neck. If the lack of pain in his head and Dawn's quiet moan were any indication, he was doing everything right. Warm blood began to rhythmically pulse into his mouth, and he lost himself in her taste as he slowly drank in time with her heartbeat. As he became overwhelmed by her blood, Spike sucked harder and harder, and Dawn began to cry out…

"Spike…oh God…Spike! Wh…what's ha…ha…happening to me?" Dawn's hands clawed at Spike's back, her fingers clenching and unclenching at random as a powerful orgasm began to build in her body. Her inexpert fumblings in the secrecy of her bedroom never felt like this. She felt as if her whole body was on the brink of something wonderful. Spike was kneeling upright on the couch, supporting Dawn's entire weight in his arms as he clutched her to him. Dawn wrapped her arms tighter around him, fistfuls of his shirt in each hand. Her eyes opened wide and a small "Oh!" left her mouth as she climaxed.

Spike drank deeply through her orgasm and didn't stop until Dawn's body lay limp in his arms. He set her down gently, a slight fear that he had drunk too much worming its way into his mind through the euphoria of the feed. Her skin was far too pale, her breathing too shallow. Dawn looked at Spike with a dreamy glaze over her eyes and a small smile on her face. "Wow…" was all she managed to utter before curling up and falling fast asleep.

Seeing that she was content filled Spike with a sense of relief, and he finally allowed himself to collapse by her side, gripping the couch for support as the heady feeling of her blood surged through his veins, making his world spin. Power seemed to flow through him, yet he felt an odd sense of peace as well. Absentmindedly, he brushed a stray tendril of hair away from Dawn's face.

"Bloody Hell," Spike muttered. "What have I gotten myself into?"


	4. Chapter 4

Spike cradled Dawn's sleeping form against his chest, absentmindedly running his fingers through her hair as he came down from the extraordinary high he had experienced from drinking her blood. Her breathing was too shallow for his liking, but her heart beat strongly. She looked so frail, all curled up tightly against him, but he knew she had an inner strength that her small form belied.

Spike could still taste her blood in his mouth and feel it coursing through his veins. It touched him to receive such a precious gift. Her trust and her esteem of him went a long way towards healing the hurt that he continually carried around inside, the idea that he was not worthy. Wistfully he cast his eyes upon the marks on Dawn's body, both the ones of her own doing and the ones he had made, a slight frown marring his features as he saw how puffy and red some of the cuts looked.

"Bugger!" Spike exclaimed with a start.

As gently, but rapidly as he could, Spike extricated himself from the couch and ran to get his first aid supplies. He was so used to dealing with other vampires or the Slayer. He'd forgotten that normal human beings don't heal up as fast. Not that Dawn was normal, per se, but it seemed as though supernatural healing did not come with the whole mystical energy in human form package.

Spike rummaged through his things until he found what he was looking for. Gauze, first aid tape, cotton balls and peroxide. Kneeling down beside the couch, he slowly turned Dawn so that she was lying flat on her back, with her wounded arm facing upwards. At the touch of the cotton ball full of peroxide, Dawn woke up, eyes snapping wide open.

"Ow, Spike. What are you doing?"

Spike flinched as pain shot through his head. Damn chip. Scowling, but trying not to get angry, he patiently explained: "Well kitten, we seemed to have overlooked something. You still have some wicked cut marks on your arm. They're all puffy and red. Real unhealthy looking. Unless you fancy a nasty infection, you'll let ol' Spike clean you up."

With a grimace, Dawn kept her eyes focused on the stone ceiling above her. Spike tenderly cleaned out her arm and wrapped it in gauze. He also applied a dab of peroxide to the bite mark on her neck, but he stopped short of covering it up with a bandage. He was proud of that mark, and wanted the world to see.

"There now, luv. You make sure you keep these cuts nice and clean so they'll heal up proper. Too much scarring can ruin the fun of remarking," Spike said with a wink.

"Spike, why does a vampire have first aid supplies in his crypt?" Dawn asked, her voice neutral, but her eyes slightly accusing.

Spike squirmed a little from where he sat. "Well pet, you may not have realized it, but you just fulfilled a long-standing fantasy of mine. I've been dreaming of having some woman come to me, all bleedin' and hurt. Made my heart race to think of kissing it all better, then bandaging her up, nice and neat."

"Yeah, I bet you were thinking about Buffy when you bought this stuff," Dawn said, a tinge of resentment coloring her voice.

"You want the truth? Yeah, I was thinking of the Slayer when I marched my pansy ass to the drug store and bought first aid supplies. But a bloke's allowed a few mistakes, ain't he? It doesn't matter _why _I bought the supplies. Just that I have them here for you. _You're_ the one I kissed all better, and it's _you_ I bandaged up all nice and neat. So no jealous snits...they don't become you."

Dawn was too tired to argue. He seemed to be making sense, and she didn't want to ruin the evening by fighting. Forcing her jealousy aside, Dawn gave Spike a small smile. "So am I all better now?" she asked sleepily.

"Yes luv, you'll be all ship shape by morning."

"Mmm…that's nice." With that, Dawn closed her eyes and snuggled back into the cushions of the couch.

Spike placed a tender kiss on Dawn's forehead, and thinking she had drifted off to sleep, he let his head travel down to place a soft, butterfly kiss on her lips. He was too preoccupied to notice the momentary tensing of her body. Nor could he hear her inner squeal of delight as she thought: "Oh my God! He kissed me! My very first kiss is from a vampire...I _have_ to write this down!"

However, Dawn kept her eyes shut and her breathing slow and even, and shortly thereafter Spike stood up. He walked over to the wall opposite the couch and leaned his forehead against the cool stone as he suddenly realized how much sexual tension was still coiled tightly within his body, waiting to be released. He was used to both feeding and fucking when the bloodletting was so intimate in nature. Having to restrain himself was still somewhat unnatural for him.

The fingers of his one hand absently ran through his hair, while the other hand dangled at his waist. Spike just couldn't seem to calm himself down. He still felt tense and jittery, and his thoughts were racing. His body hungered for a climax of its own, and as quietly as possible, he undid the fly of his jeans. From behind him, two pale arms snaked around his waist. Spike tensed as Dawn slipped herself between him and the wall, his arousal growing even more when he saw that she had rid herself of her clothing.

"I thought you were sleeping, pet."

"I'm suddenly not very tired," Dawn answered with a sultry voice.

Dawn's voice was low and seductive, but Spike did not have time to ponder on this sudden change in her as he became distracted with her fingernails raking up and down his chest in a harsh, rhythmic fashion. "Oh yeah, that's it," Spike murmured to the wall.

Taking the initiative, Dawn pulled Spike's head down to hers. This was not the near-chaste kiss of before. This was a passionate battle of wills and tongues that Spike felt himself quickly losing. With a groan, Spike pulled Dawn to him. She wrapped her legs around his waist as if it were the most natural thing in the world for a 14 year old to do. Spike took a moment to run his hands over her naked flesh before savagely pushing into her. It had been so long since he'd taken a virgin, and she was so tight. He began to pump, slowly at first, but rapidly increasing in speed. With every thrust Spike called her name, chanting it louder and louder like a mantra. With a muted roar, he allowed himself the release he could not have taken earlier.

Dawn watched wide-eyed from the couch, her mouth slightly ajar. She sat transfixed as Spike seemed to flex and unflex towards the wall in a rhythmic motion. His moans had snapped her from her teenage reverie concerning her first kiss, and him calling out her name repeatedly was enough to make her sit bolt upright on the couch to ensure she wasn't dreaming.

When Spike reached his climax, Dawn finally mustered the courage to ask the almost redundant question burning in her mind. "Spike," she said softly, "wh…what are you doing?"

Spike's fantasy ended with a jolt. He groaned again, but not with the fire of passion. This time it was with the ice-cold realization that he had been caught in the act. The sound of Spike's zipper going up seemed to echo in the too-quiet tomb. Dawn watched as Spike discreetly wiped his hand on his jeans before turning to face her. He sat down next to her on the couch, a chagrined look on his face.

"Dawn, I don't want you to be angry with me. You know how I made you feel earlier, right?" Spike spoke as if speaking to a very young child. "Seeing you like that, well, it had quite an effect on me. And it's not in my nature to go to bed...unsatisfied."

Realization spread over Dawn's face, and she felt deeply embarrassed. In all of her self-discovery, she had never once thought that Spike might want something in return. "Spike, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to be such a …a…tease, but you have to know, I…I can't give you that. Not yet. I'm just not ready." Tears were welling up in her eyes, and she turned away to avoid having to look him in the face.

"I must seem so selfish," she whispered as tears silently fell from her eyes.

Spike pulled her head to his chest and smoothed her hair with his hands. "Shhh…shhh. It's alright, poppet. It's alright. If you don't mind me, er...helping myself along sometimes, then we'll be just fine. I promise, I will never, ever hurt you, or push you beyond your limits."

"Really? You're not mad at me?"

"Oh no, Dawn. I'm not mad. You gave me quite a gift tonight. You trusted me with your very lifeblood, and believe me when I say that it's not too often that a vampire gets that sort of trust. What kind of daft fool would I be to give that up? Girls who just want a quick shag are a dime a dozen. But the way you gaze up at me, with those big, wide eyes of yours...that means so much more than a thousand easy lays."

Dawn sniffled and then smiled. "Well gee, I think I'll take that as a compliment."

"Damn right you'd better. I was a poet once you know. You should bask in my superior way with words. I await your glowing admiration." Spike grinned at her and she burst into a fit of giggles, then yawned loudly.

"You look tired. How's about this, luv. Why don't we go to bed...no don't you go raisin' your eyebrows at me. I mean sleep, nothing more. I think we could both fancy a rest after the night's activities."

"That would be nice Spike." Dawn smiled as Spike lay down on the couch. She curled up next to him, her fingers idly tracing circles on his chest before they both slipped into a deep slumber.


	5. Chapter 5

"Spike," Dawn hissed, poking him in the chest. "Spike, wake up!" When poking didn't seem to work, Dawn began to shake him.

Spike sat up with a start and slammed Dawn into the back of the couch, a death grip on her throat. His golden eyes were filled with murderous rage for a brief moment before he howled in pain and clutched his head.

"Hell, luv! Is that any way to wake a fellow up? Show some respect for the dead."

Dawn stared at Spike in mute silence, still clutching her throat. Bruises were rapidly forming where Spike's fingers had been just moments before. She coughed and took a few gasping breaths before croaking out, "I'm sorry, Spike."

"Aw hell, I'm sorry kitten. I didn't mean to hurt you. It's just we vampires have a strong self-preservation instinct, even in our sleep. Must come from those bloody vampire slayers hunting us down during the day, while we're unconscious. Even minions will lash out in their sleep if something wakes them suddenly. Keeps us from meeting the wrong end of a stake, if you get the picture. What time is it, anyway?"

Dawn looked shyly down at her lap, still a bit shaken up. "I don't know the time exactly. I forgot my watch, but I think it's morning…the sun is up."

"You do realize, pet, that we vampires are nocturnal creatures. The up all night and sleep all day sorts. What on Earth would possess you to get up this early? After last night, I thought you'd need your rest. Perhaps I didn't tire you out as much as I thought. I'll have to try harder next time," he said with a lascivious grin.

Dawn blushed and looked down at her lap again. "Last night was wonderful, Spike, and I'm still exhausted, but…"

"C'mon nibblet, blurt it out. What's got you all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at this ungodly hour?"

"I have to pee Spike. Really bad. Like in, if I don't pee soon I'll wet my pants sort of bad."

"Oh...OH! Sorry, luv. What with the crowd I run with, I don't normally have to worry about that. Why don't you just go outside and take a leak in the bushes?"

"First of all, eww. That's just gross. Second of all, someone thought it would be a bright idea to stack large cement slabs in front of the only door. I can't get out."

"She'll spend the night in a crypt in the arms of a vampire, yet peeing in the shrubbery she finds disgusting. I don't get it," Spike muttered under his breath as he got up. With an effort, he moved the slabs back to their original places over top of the coffins and sluggishly sat back down on the couch. "There you go, pet. I still think it'd be easier to just go for the bushes right outside, but if you want to be all girly, there's a visitor's center at the gates. Should be a loo there, I'd gather."

"Thanks, Spike!" Dawn yelled as she ran out the door.

Spike lay back down on the couch the moment Dawn was out the door. He intended to wait for her to return before passing out, but his natural inclination to be dead asleep while the sun was still high caused him to drift back to unconsciousness nearly the moment his head hit the cushions.

Dawn quickly found the visitor's center. She raced inside and frantically exclaimed, "Bathroom!" to the attendant. She scurried in the direction he pointed and nearly dove into the restroom. Once she sat down on the toilet, Dawn relieved herself with an audible sigh. She had spent all night and who knows how much of the day in the crypt without the use of a bathroom. She hadn't known her body could hold that much liquid. Once she was finished, Dawn tried to wash up as best she could. She scrubbed her hands and face and made a weak attempt at smoothing her hair down until it was somewhat presentable. Then she took a paper towel and rubbed the fuzz off her teeth. She still didn't look her best, but she didn't look quite so haggard as before. With a final glance in the mirror, Dawn headed back towards the crypt.

Spike woke with a gasp as he felt a firm pair of legs wrap around his waist. Not bothering to open his eyes, he attempted to slide his hands around the tempting figure on top of him, only to be pushed down hard. For the second time that morning Spike had a rude awakening. This time he found himself staring at an angry pair of green eyes, a stake pressing hard into his chest. "Where is she Spike?" was the menacing question that came from the petite woman peering down at him.

"Why, if it isn't the Slayer. What a ...pleasant...surprise. Come to confess your undying love have you? I knew you couldn't stay away forever."

Buffy punched Spike hard in the nose and slammed her stake into the right half of his chest. Spike screamed in pain, then gaspingly muttered, "you missed."

"I know," Buffy said with a steely calm to her voice. "If you don't answer me, and answer me now, I promise the next time I won't. My mom has to go back to the hospital in a few days, I just found out that I have to defeat a psychobitch demi-god to save the world _again_... not a demon mind you, but a god… my sister is cutting herself, and now she's gone missing. I am on my last nerve, and I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR SHIT!"

Buffy punctuated her last statement by twisting the stake in Spike's chest before pulling it out and holding it over his heart. "I know you stand outside my house and practically stalk me every night, so you must have seen her leave. Tell me where she went, or so help me, I'll end your pathetic excuse for a life, chip or no chip."

Spike was spared the ordeal of replying when Dawn walked in the door. "Get away from him!" she screamed as she began to wildly beat against Buffy's back. "What do you think you're doing?" she asked as she pushed Buffy away and placed herself between Spike and the Slayer.

"Funny, I was about to ask you the same thing. Where have you been? Do you even know how worried mom and I were? I looked everywhere for you." Buffy dropped her stake and flung her arms around her sister. "Please promise me you'll never do that again."

Dawn pushed away from Buffy. "I'm not promising you anything. Blobs of energy in human form don't have to make promises." Dawn unconsciously edged closer to Spike for emotional support as she verbally attacked her sister.

"Dawn, I am so sorry for how you found out about this. I should have told you sooner. But no matter what you may think you are, you will always be my sister. You are in here," she said, tapping her head, "and in here," placing her hand over her heart. "Nothing will change that."

Dawn trembled a bit, taking a step towards Buffy. Then she heard Spike groan behind her. "That's all fine and good, but it doesn't change the fact that my friend now has a hole in his chest because of you."

"Friend...FRIEND! He is not your friend. Don't tell me you spent the night here." Buffy began walking towards her sister, ready to drag her home, when she finally noticed the marks on Dawn. Bruises covered her throat, and when Buffy gently pushed Dawn's hair back, a bite mark was clearly evident. She turned her rage towards Spike. "What did you do to her?"

Before Buffy could attack him again, he pushed himself into a sitting position and began to explain. "Take a look at her arm Slayer. See the nice, white bandages? You think they just magically appeared? Hell no, that was courtesy of the Big Bad himself. And ponder this for a moment...what do you think is going to happen when a little morsel like that goes running into the night, her arm all bleedin'? It's like hangin' an "EAT ME" sign 'round your neck. I did the girl a good turn. If you were really looking all that hard outside, you might notice a dozen or so piles of dust. I worked my tail off to keep the little Nibblet safe. Not my fault I couldn't fight them all off before one got to her." Spike let the lie at the end roll off his tongue as easily as all the truths.

Buffy stood there in shocked silence. While Dawn still looked edgy, she wasn't denying any of it. Before Buffy could formulate a response, Giles burst into the crypt. He too had come to pump the blond vampire for information. Upon seeing Dawn, he immediately ran up to her and gave her a bear hug. Stroking her hair back, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh Dawn, you had us all so very worried. Are you alright, dear?"

"Yeah, I'm fine Giles. As fine as anyone who just found out she's some mystical key can be. I got attacked, but Spike saved me."

"Sp…Spike?" Giles looked dubious. "Well then, I suppose we owe him a debt of gratitude. He does seem to look a bit worse for the wear."

"No thanks to Buffy," Dawn muttered.

"Perhaps we should go home and discuss this after you've had the chance to clean up and rest a bit," Giles said, trying to alleviate the tension in the room.

"But what about Spike? He's hurt! We can't just leave him like this."

Spike stood up and slowly peeled his shirt off, rubbing his chest with it before throwing it into a corner. Giles coughed politely, and Buffy just looked disgusted, but Dawn watched intently, her eyes opening wide. "Wow," she whispered softly, barely audible to even Spike.

"See look at that. Almost like new." Spike was right. Once he had rubbed the blood away with his shirt, there was only a small pink circle left on his chest where a hole the size of a stake had been only minutes earlier. "Really, pet. You should go home and rest. Don't worry about good ol' Spike...no one else does."

"C'mon Dawn," Buffy said gently. "Let me take you home."

Dawn glanced at Spike again before finally acquiescing. With a nod of her head, everyone began to file towards the door, Buffy and Giles first, followed by Dawn and Spike. Since their backs were turned, Buffy and Giles couldn't see the two behind them. Spike leaned down and licked Dawn's ear. She turned around and glared at him, barely stifling a giggle. He whispered into her ear, "Dream about me, luv. All sorts of naughty things," then gave her butt a firm squeeze.

"Eep!" Dawn squealed, not able to contain her surprise.

Immediately two pairs of concerned eyes were focused on her. "What's wrong, Dawn?" Buffy asked, worry in her voice.

"I'm fine Buffy, really. I just saw a spider…a big one. But…but I think it's gone now."

Buffy linked arms with Dawn and, casting a scowl at Spike, she said, "let's get you out of this nasty old crypt." Dawn gave a small wave to Spike, and then the two sisters walked out the door.

However, Giles hung back, intent on saying a few words to the blond vampire. "Spike, what you did last night was truly admirable; hence it begs the question...what's in it for you? Blood, cash...what do you want?"

"I can always use a spot of cash Watcher, but I didn't do it for the money...I did it for _her_."

Despite Spike's protestation, Giles shoved several bills against the vampire's chest. Green eyes met blue in an intense gaze. "No matter what you do, she will never love you. I hope you realize that."

"Sounds like someone's talking from experience."

Giles stiffened and backed away, letting the money drop to the floor. "Sod off," he said through clenched teeth before turning and leaving, slamming the door behind him.

Spike pondered what the Watcher had said, trying to sort out his feelings. "She will never love you," kept running through his mind. Spike settled back down on the couch to finally finish his sleep. He mumbled one last thing before drifting off again:

"I guess that entirely depends upon which she you are referring to, mate."


	6. Chapter 6

Dawn was exhausted. She had spent most of the night very much awake in Spike's crypt, and then the call of nature had woken her despite her body's protestations at getting so little sleep. After Buffy dragged her home, there had been about an hour's worth of "I was so worried" and "don't ever do that again" sort of lecturing. Finally, Dawn was allowed to retreat into the solitude of her room. However, despite her deep fatigue, she couldn't resist the urge to write down all her thoughts about the previous night before they all flitted out of her head.

Dawn scribbled furiously in the notebook she had designated as the first of her new journal series. She knew that she had sworn never to write in them again after she'd burned the others in a fit of rage and confusion, but she found that writing was a comfort. And luckily her mom had managed to salvage most of the journals before they burnt up. Since it takes a while for stacks of paper to burn completely through, most of them were just singed around the edges.

Dawn wrote until her vision got blurry, putting into words all of her scattered feelings about Spike, being the Key, and life in general. Finally she shut her journal with a satisfied sigh and lay down to go to sleep, clutching the notebook to her chest like a security blanket. Dawn wasn't awake to see Buffy come into her room.

"Dawnie?" Buffy said softly. Seeing her all curled up on her bed, looking so innocent, brought a tender smile to Buffy's face. Being careful not to wake her, Buffy slipped the journal out of Dawn's arms and covered her with a blanket. Staring at the book in her hands, she couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Dawn to make her start writing again after her fiery display of anger towards the journals the night before. Buffy wasn't able to contain her curiosity; it must be the nosiness inherent in sisters to find out what the other is doing. Peeking at Dawn to make sure she was really asleep, Buffy cracked open the journal and began reading.

_"Dear Diary,_

_I know I said I would never write in you again, and I'm really sorry. It was dumb to try to burn up my journals. Forgive me? Right now you are like the only one I can talk to. I can't tell anyone what happened. Just think how this conversation would go with the kids at school. 'Me? I'm not too bad...just found out I'm not human. How's your day going?' I bet that would go over real well. I just don't understand it. I have all of these memories. Picnics at the beach with Mom and Buffy. Getting the chicken pox in first grade. Going to the school dance and leaving because I spilt grape juice on my white dress. What kind of monk comes up with these kinds of memories anyway? If they were gonna give me a life, why not just skip the embarrassing growing up stuff? I feel like a normal kid. But I'm anything but normal. I'm the Key, whatever that's supposed to mean. And I don't even get magical powers. How lame is that? _

_It hurts so much I can't even describe it. Everyone acts all weird around me, as if I don't feel like enough of an outcast without them getting all super sensitive every time I walk into a room. This whole Key business is just the icing on the cake. Even before, they always treated me like an outsider. But after I found out that I'm not even human, I couldn't take anymore. I ran into the night, and all I wanted to do was die. I mean, weird as it may sound, if I can die, that means I'm really alive doesn't it? Then Spike found me, and somehow he made everything seem alright again. He risked his life to protect me from all those vampires even though he didn't have to, but it's more than that. Just being around him makes me feel safe and wanted. He's really brave and smart and a lot nicer than Buffy gives him credit for. She really is stupid. If I had a guy like that mooning all over me, I wouldn't complain. I mean, look at him. What a babe! _

_I wonder if he feels anything for me. It would be beyond amazing if he did, but somehow I doubt it. How am I supposed to compete with Buffy? All my 'life' or at least what I remember as my life, I've had to compete with Buffy. I know Mom loves her more. She's the real daughter, and she's the Slayer. 'Oh look at me, I'm the Chosen One. Aren't I special?' She's the one Spike loves, not me. Spike was nice to me though, and he made me feel SO GOOD! Like better than eating a pint of chocolate ice cream sort of good. I can't even describe it. I felt like I was alive, like I was normal, for the first time in months. _

_I wonder what it would be like to have sex with Spike. He's like, ancient, so I bet he knows what he's doing. I don't think I'm ready for sex though. I've seen girls at my school get pregnant and have to drop out. The guys just use them for sex and then cast them aside. I don't want that, even if I can't get pregnant from a vampire. But sleeping next to him was nice. He was such a gentleman. I didn't know a soulless demon could be a gentleman. He just held me all night long, made me feel protected. I wish I'd never gotten up to pee. I felt so guilty for leaving him when I came back. I was so afraid Buffy was going to kill him. I don't know what I'd do if he died. Right now he's my only friend. And he kissed me! I've never been kissed by a guy before, unless you count Dad, and he's family, so of course that doesn't count. Sure it was one of those quick little pecks that usually means 'Gee, I think you're swell.' Nothing like what you see in soap operas, or what Buffy and Riley used to do all the time. But it was still nice. I definitely have crush on him. I just hope he isn't being nice to me for Buffy's sake."_

Buffy looked down at the notebook, her eyes filled with confusion, sadness and anger. She couldn't believe Dawn felt that way about her. It's not her fault that everyone paid so much attention to her. She had an important job to do. And Buffy had always thought that Mom loved Dawn best. Dawn got away with murder sometimes, and Buffy always got lectured. Buffy would definitely have to try harder to make Dawn feel like part of the gang. She sounded so alone in her writing, and looking at Dawn's curled up form lying in bed, she still looked every bit as isolated as her diary suggested.

But Spike, she liked Spike? Gross. Buffy would have to do something about that. It wasn't healthy for a 14 year old to have a thing for a vampire. And since when had Dawn started thinking about sex. Did she think about sex at that age? Well, yeah, but that's beside the point. Dawn shouldn't. Buffy wasn't quite sure what had gone on between the two...Dawn had been rather vague about that, but she did not like the idea of Spike kissing her sister, whether it was a chaste kiss or not. Spike was just the sort to take advantage of a young, willing girl. Buffy had to play it cool though. She couldn't let Dawn know that she'd read her diary or it might ruin everything. She'd think of some way to break Dawn's infatuation with Spike after dinner. She set Dawn's journal on the floor next to the bed, making it seem like it just fell naturally while Dawn was sleeping. Tiptoeing out of the room, Buffy went downstairs to see if her mom needed any help with the meal.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hi honey, how was your sleep?" Joyce asked as Dawn groggily came down the stairs.

"Ok, I guess. I'm really hungry though. I heard you're supposed to eat a lot after losing blood. What's for dinner?"

"Come into the dining room and have a seat, dear. Dinner's almost ready."

Dawn gasped as she walked into the other room. A veritable Thanksgiving's feast was spread out on the table. And everyone was there. Giles, Xander, Anya, Willow and Tara. The whole gang. A chorus of "Hi Dawn's" assailed her as she took a seat across from Xander.

"Hey everyone. What's all this for?"

Joyce walked in, carrying a bowl of mashed potatoes between two hot pads. "We thought you could use a bit of family time after everything that's been going on. And everyone here is like family in one way or another, so I invited them all over."

"So, how're ya feelin' Dawnster?" Xander asked.

"I wish people would stop asking me that. It's like you think I'm made of porcelain or something."

"Well, I have a vested interest in your survival. If I lose you, who else will I beat at board games?"

"Yes," Anya replied. "We would all be very sad if you continued to cut holes into your arm. There are much cleaner ways to die you know. Messier too I suppose," she mused.

Xander glared at his girlfriend. "Anya, honey...What did we discuss earlier about _good _and _bad_ topics for dinner conversation?" Xander spoke with a nervous tinge to his voice. He really didn't want Dawn to get upset again.

To everyone's surprise, Dawn laughed and gave Anya a big smile. She was glad that a least one person wasn't walking on eggshells around her. "Don't worry about it, Xander. I think it's just her way of showing she cares."

"See Xander, she thinks I'm nice!" Xander just rolled his eyes and let the comment slide.

The rest of the dinner was spent relatively disaster free. They talked and chatted about various things, making sure to never leave Dawn out. They even mentioned Glory, and for once Buffy didn't try to protect her kid sister by keeping information hidden. For the first time in ages, Dawn really felt like one of the gang rather than some outsider looking in.

The only eventful thing happened once Joyce brought pie out. There was a small incident involving whipped cream, resulting in Xander getting a face full of the white, sticky stuff. Dawn giggled, and Anya made a remark about having to buy some whipped cream for later. When Dawn tried to convince Anya to tell her just what she had planned, Xander's hand planted over his girlfriend's mouth was the only thing that kept Dawn from all the juicy details.

Once everyone had eaten their fill of dessert, the group moved into the living room to chat. Dawn groaned as she plopped down on the couch. "I'm so full I think I'm gonna burst!" she exclaimed as she clutched her belly.

"Well you did eat two whole plates of food," Willow commented. "I didn't think your Dawn-sized stomach could hold that much."

"You…you're looking better though," Tara said softly. "Not nearly so pale as before."

"I still feel like a pig though. Maybe I should go for a little walk…try to burn off some of these calories while it's still light out."

"Oh...you're leaving?" Willow asked, disappointment written over her face. "I thought this would be a night of cool fun, not of walking out before the fun's even started."

"And you know Dawn, if you sit down long enough, that urge to exercise will fly right out the window. Works for me every time," Xander piped in.

Dawn looked around at the hopeful faces of her friends. She also happened to catch a glimpse of her mother's face, which had a scowl on it that clearly said 'don't you dare leave while we have guests.' Caving into the pressure, she finally agreed to stay put and watch a movie with everyone.

However, about a half an hour into the film, she felt like she was about to fall asleep. Given that she'd spent a good portion of the day sleeping, she wasn't quite ready to be unconscious yet again. She really felt that a nice walk would do her some good, so slipping into the kitchen under the guise of getting a drink, she silently snuck out the back door…and nearly had a heart attack when her sister came from behind and linked arms with her before she was even three steps away from the house.

"So, where are we going?" Buffy asked.

"Isn't this the part where you're supposed to yell at me and drag me back inside?" Dawn asked.

"I figured you'd probably had enough of yelling for one day. If you wanna go for a walk, that's cool, but since it's gonna be dark in about a half hour, I'd like to join you, if you don't mind." Honestly, Buffy wouldn't have let Dawn go alone no matter how much her baby sister whined, but she was trying to play things cool and stay on Dawn's good side.

And it seemed to be working. Dawn just shrugged, and they walked in silence for a while. Eventually though, Dawn ended up steering them towards the cemetery where Spike lived, and Buffy couldn't hold her tongue any longer. "Dawn, I don't know if it's the smartest thing for us to be walking through the cemetery. It's almost dark."

"We'll be ok," Dawn replied quietly. 'Spike is here. He'll protect us.' was her unvoiced thought.

Buffy wasn't a mind reader, but she had a good idea why her sister had steered them towards this place. "You're looking for Spike, aren't you?"

Dawn opened her mouth to protest, but all of her arguments seemed unconvincing even to her. "How did you know?" she asked with a sigh.

"Just call it Big Sister sense," Buffy said with a gentle smile. "Dawn, I really think you need to be careful around Spike. He might not be able to bite, but he's still dangerous. He might...take advantage of you. I don't want you spending time with him."

The moment the words left her mouth, Buffy knew she had gone too far. Dawn tensed and pulled away from her, defiance clearly writ across her face.

"You can't tell me what to do! Spike's my... friend...he cares about me. I'm sure he does! And it's not like you never had a vampire for a friend. What about Angel, huh?"

Buffy bit back her retort about how things were different for her. She was a Slayer, and her abilities made her much more capable of taking care of herself, but she knew that sort of argument would only make Dawn angrier. Instead, she tried a different approach.

"Dawn, what if I could prove to you that Spike doesn't care. Would you listen to me then?"

"And how are you planning on doing that?" Dawn replied angrily.

"C'mon," Buffy said, tugging Dawn in the direction of Spike's crypt. "I've got an idea. You just stay out here, right by the door, and watch everything that happens. OK?"

Dawn gave Buffy a dubious look, but it was clear that her curiosity was getting the best of her. It was one of Dawn's traits that Buffy could always count on. Buffy just hoped that her spur-of-the-moment plan didn't blow up in her face. She didn't want to hurt her sister, but really, this was for her own good. Taking a deep breath, she turned and entered Spike's crypt, making sure to leave the door open so that Dawn could see everything that was about to happen.

Inside, Spike was getting ready to go out. He could feel the sun going down, and he had a strong urge to get outside, work off some of his energy. Surprisingly, he wasn't that hungry. Not hungry at all in fact, but he was dying for some whiskey and a spot of violence. Spike had taken off his shirt and boots before going to sleep earlier that day, and now he stripped off his last piece of clothing, his dirty pants. He never really had felt the need for underwear of any sort. Standing there naked, he looked at his assortment of clothes, trying to decide just which combination of black and red he wanted to wear tonight. That's when Buffy walked in.

"Spike!"

"Buffy!"

Dawn stared from the door, her eyes wide as saucers. Sure, she had taken health class, but this was the first time she'd ever seen a real person naked. For a few blissful moments, she got to look at Spike in his full glory, just standing there pondering what to wear, before he hurriedly grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around his waist.

"Bloody hell! Doesn't anyone in this godforsaken town ever knock?"

"It's a _crypt_ Spike. No one knocks when they come into a crypt."

"Well this crypt happens to be my home. Have some respect, would ya?" After a short pause, where they both just stared at each other, Spike broke the silence. "I'm guessing you haven't come to just stare at me Slayer. What do you want? And make it quick…I'm feeling a bit…exposed…here."

Buffy steeled herself. Think of Angel…think of Angel, she thought. "Actually Spike, I have you just where I want you." Buffy advanced towards him and began raking her nails over Spike's bare chest. She put on her poutiest voice. "I got very jealous when I found out you spent the whole night with Dawn. Very jealous," she said as she kissed the spot where she had rammed a stake earlier that day. "I thought you loved me, Spike. You do love me, don't you? And not her?" Buffy said the and not her' part a bit louder than normal, making sure that Dawn would hear. She then ran her finger up Spike's thigh and used her other hand to pull his head down for a rough kiss.

Dawn watched the spectacle from the doorway. At first Spike had just seemed stunned, not knowing what do to. When Buffy kissed him, his arms flailed about wildly for a second. Uncertain of himself, he gently cupped her face for a moment, rubbing his thumb along her jawbone. Then his whole body stiffened and his eyes snapped open.

Dawn was sure she saw flecks of gold mixed with the blue as he roughly pulled Buffy to him. His demon came forth as he ravaged her mouth and slid his hands over her, one to cup her ass and the other sliding under her shirt to roughly fondle her breasts.

Dawn couldn't take it anymore. With a choked sob, she ran out the door, heedless of the approaching darkness.


	7. Chapter 7

Spike stood naked in front of his assortment of clothes, contemplating what to wear. He was just about to make a decision when the door to his crypt came flying open.

"Buffy!" he squawked, his voice rising an octave.

This wasn't quite what he'd fantasized when he pictured being naked with the Slayer. Quickly, he grabbed a blanket and covered his groin area. As he tied the blanket around his waist he grumbled, "Bloody hell! Doesn't anyone in this godforsaken town ever knock?"

Buffy was acting strangely. She wasn't kicking him...she wasn't punching him. She was just staring at him with a forlorn look in her eyes, like she was about to do something she was going to regret. And unless she was planning on getting naked too, he wasn't too keen on standing there wrapped in a blanket all night.

"I'm guessing you haven't come to just stare at me Slayer. What do you want? And make it quick…I'm feeling a bit…exposed…here."

Spikes snarky comment seemed to snap Buffy out of her reverie, and suddenly her entire demeanor changed. Spike took a nervous step backwards as she began to advance towards him, a predatory look in her eye. Spike knew that look too well. Hell, he'd _used_ that look many a time. It was a look that screamed, "I'm going to eat you up, and you're going to enjoy it."

"Actually, Spike, I have you right where I want you," Buffy practically purred. Spike raised an eyebrow. Now what was that supposed to mean? However, he soon lost the ability for all rational thought as Buffy answered his unspoken question, scratching and kissing his chest. A very prominent bulge began to form beneath the blanket, and Spike let a low moan escape the back of his throat. He'd wanted this for so long! Spike couldn't even decipher the words coming out of the Slayer's mouth. They were nothing but background noise to him. All he could concentrate on was the feeling of her lips and her hands as they caused dizzying sensations to course through his body.

He was so lost in the moment that he was totally unprepared when she yanked his head down and began to roughly kiss him, ravaging his mouth. Spike didn't know what to do. He didn't want to offend her and have this dream end, so he aimlessly flailed his arms around, trying to find a neutral spot to touch her. Finally, he settled for cupping her face in his hands. He ran his thumb along her jawbone, trying to make the kiss more gentle, to prove that he wanted _her_, not just her body.

As he gave himself over to the kiss, he could feel her tense and recoil ever so slightly at his tender caresses. It was then that the truth struck him. He suddenly knew, with perfect clarity, that this was not real. Whatever the Slayer's game was, it involved no feelings for him other than disgust. He could tell by the way she kissed. It was the same sort of kiss that the two-bit whores had given him so long ago, when he would desperately grope them and call out Cecily's name. They were fine with a rough tumble, but the moment any sort of feelings came into play, their disgust was palpable no matter how talented they were at playing the part of a lover for the night.

Spike's whole body stiffened with this revelation. 'Well, if the Slayer wants to play games,' he thought, 'I'll give her a game.'

His eyes glowing golden with anger, he pulled Buffy to him, ravaging her mouth as she had ravaged his. Throwing all tenderness aside, he pawed at her as if she were nothing but a whore to use and discard, his hands roaming freely over the firm curve of her ass and sliding inside her shirt to fondle her breasts.

Unbeknownst to him, Dawn was watching the whole spectacle, horror and rejection filling her as she watched the way he was touching Buffy. Not understanding what was happening, she ran into the night with tears in her eyes, trying to outrun the image of Spike and her sister together.

Spike was too distracted to notice the departing presence of the younger Summers sister. All of his attention was focused on the Slayer, who was doing delicious things with her tongue and teeth against his neck. Not to be outdone, Spike continued his assault, groping Buffy and pinching her nipples hard, causing them to tighten under the onslaught. Then he pushed her onto the ground, roughly spreading her legs wide apart and pinning her wrists above her head with one hand. For a second, he could see a flare of outrage in her eyes before they glassed over into the pretense of lust once more. Spike smirked, enjoying both the feel of her body and the knowledge of her discomfort.

Kneeling above her, Spike slid his free hand up Buffy's leg, inching underneath the fabric of her skirt until he reached the junction of her thighs. He continued to watch her eyes defiantly as he slipped a finger beneath the thin cotton of her panties, just waiting for her to break. He was willing to take this as far as she would let him, but when he pushed one of his long fingers inside of her, they both knew the game was up. Buffy's acting skills did not extend far enough that she could control her body's physiological reactions. Having Spike's hands on her body sickened her, and she was completely dry because of it. No amount of acting could hide that fact.

Had she been at all wet for him, he would have fucked her senseless before trying to figure out the purpose of game she was playing. He could have made her come over and over again until she couldn't even remember what it was about him she found so repulsive, but if she was not aroused at all, it would certainly be no fun for him. Mostly because the damn chip in his brain would be certain to go off the moment he rammed himself into her bone dry cunt. He could already feel the tingly warning in his brain as he imagined taking her so hard that her blood served as lubricant instead of her body's natural juices. And he'd be damned before he spent hours seducing her with no guarantee that he'd get his jollies in return. No matter how much he wanted her, he wasn't that selfless. The 'honor' of touching her just wasn't enough anymore…not after he'd felt the giddy euphoria of having someone look at him with awe and devotion just the night before.

Spike slid his hand out of Buffy's panties and grabbed her by the arms, roughly pulling her up into a seated position. "You and I both know the game is up," he said coldly "Whose name were you going to scream when I fucked you? Whose? My nancy-boy sire's...the little tin soldier's? Or maybe even your old man Watcher's. It sure as hell wouldn't be mine! Who died and made you God…to think you have the right to play with people's hearts like that? I got feelin's too, ya know."

Buffy sat there in mute horror, tears streaming down her face. She felt dirty where he had touched her and disgusted at what she had done. Then suddenly, an awful realization struck her. If a soulless vampire was this upset by what she had tried to do, how must her sister feel? She had made the plan so suddenly, and she was so sure it was for Dawn's own good, that she hadn't even stopped to think of the consequences. Pushing Spike away, Buffy got up and ran towards the door.

"Dawn…Dawnie? Are you there? Please say something…I'm so sorry, honey!"

After hearing no reply, Buffy did a quick search outside the crypt. "Oh, God…she's gone!" Buffy gasped, a fresh batch of tears streaming down her face.

Buffy moved to leave and search for her sister, but Spike caught her by the arm. "Dawn?" he asked angrily. "_Dawn_ was here?"

"I did it to protect her. It's my job to keep her safe from things like you," Buffy said, emptiness tingeing her voice. Even she knew that her excuses were hollow. She had pushed it too far this time.

"She has a protector you stupid bint...ME!" Spike shouted as he paced back and forth angrily. "Just how do you think you made Dawn feel? She's all head over heels for me, and what does she get to see? Big sister whoring herself out all in the name of protecting her. I bet that went over real well! You remember how you felt when soldier-boy was havin' a spot of fun behind your back? Cried for days you did...I know...I was watchin' ya the whole time. Now imagine you caught your boy toy messing around with one of your pals, little witchy Red Riding Hood or the like. Suddenly it's worse...all personal. Double betrayal...double pain. As if that wouldn't be enough, add to that finding out you're not quite human and sprinkle on a bit of big sister rivalry, and you might get an inkling of what Dawn is going through right now!" Spike ended his tirade with a growl and stalked away from the crypt, Buffy chasing after him.

"Just where do you think you are going, Spike?"

"_I'm_ going to find her. _You_ are going home!" Spike yelled.

Buffy punched Spike and threw him to the ground. "You stay away from my sister!"

"But will she stay away from me, luv?" Spike asked with a snide grin. Buffy was about to launch into another attack on Spike when they both heard a shrill scream pierce the air off in the distance.

"Dawn!" they both exclaimed simultaneously.

They both took off at a run, but Spike easily outdistanced Buffy and arrived at the scene first. Dawn was surrounded by several dozen pygmy-like creatures. Some were clinging to her back, and a few had made a home in her hair. The rest were bouncing up in down in front of her, chanting something in a foreign language. Spike growled at them, and they all ran away screaming, making high pitched squealing noises. Dawn ran into Spike's arms and hugged him tight.

"I was so scared, Spike," she sighed, nuzzling her head into his chest. For a moment, her relief allowed her to forget everything she had seen earlier. But soon it all came flooding back and she tensed in Spike's arms. Backing away from him with a glare, she slapped him soundly across the face. "But that doesn't mean I'm not still mad at you. I saw you with Buffy."

Just then Buffy ran up from behind, panting and out of breath. "What…were…they?" she gasped.

Under normal circumstances, Spike would have laughed, but he was still stinging from Dawn's slap. "They're called trollags," Spike said soberly. "Harmless buggers. They are more like sprites than anything else. They got scared when they saw the Big Bad comin'."

Dawn's curiosity got the best of her. Forgetting her anger for a moment, she asked "What did they want? They were chanting something."

"They wanted to play with you, luv," Spike said tenderly. "They're just children out for a spot of fun. That's what they were chanting...play, play, play!"

A small smile flitted across Dawn's face. "Wow…that is so cool! I wish I hadn't been so scared."

"Cool? You think a bunch of demons attacking you is cool?" Buffy interjected loudly.

"Not demons, Slayer. Sprites. There is a difference you know. Not everything that goes bump in the night is evil. It'd pay for you to learn that."

Buffy continued to ignore Spike. "We're going home," Buffy said brusquely as she grabbed Dawn by the arm.

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Dawn yelled as she yanked herself away from Buffy. "You set me up. It was bad enough when I had to watch you and Riley go at it. But I liked Spike...I really liked him. You didn't have to practically have sex with him right in front of me just to make a point. I get it. He's yours, not mine. You didn't have to rub it in."

"Spike is not _mine_! I don't even _like_ him! And you shouldn't either!" Buffy was outraged. This was not going at all how she had anticipated.

"Slayer, she's a big girl. Let her make her own decision." Spike turned to Dawn with a pleading look in his eye. "C'mon kitten, how's about you and me go somewhere quiet and talk? You can run off if you like, but I'd be daft to let you go without at least trying to give my side of things."

Dawn looked back and forth between Buffy and Spike and chose the lesser of two evils. "Buffy, I am leaving with Spike. Tell Mom that I was really stressed and I'm sleeping over at a friend's house. You even try to stop me, and I tell everyone that I saw you making out with Spike when you were supposed to be protecting me."

Dawn had hit a nerve, and Buffy was too ashamed to argue. She ran up to Dawn and hugged her. "I'm sorry," she whispered. She still couldn't bring herself to apologize to Spike. Instead she threatened him. "You hurt even a hair on her head, and I will torture you slowly before I kill you."

"I do love it when you flirt," Spike said with a cocky grin before he turned dead serious, grabbing her roughly and glaring down at the petite blonde. "You ever hurt her again, chip or no chip, what I do to you will make Angelus look like the bleedin' tooth fairy."

Buffy shoved Spike away. Battle lines firmly established, Buffy stalked off, stake in hand. She was determined to kill something before going home, or she would never blow off enough steam. Once Buffy was gone, Spike turned to Dawn.

"Shall we take this inside, kitten? Less chance of the creepy crawlies gettin' us if we aren't out of doors."

"Sure, whatever."

They walked in silence back to Spike's crypt. Once inside, Dawn crumpled, collapsing onto Spike's couch. Through her tears, Dawn asked, "Why...why, Spike? You used me. You said you'd never hurt me, but you don't care at all. I thought I was special."

"Aw hell, luv. You are special. What Buffy did was wrong. She used my feelings for her against us both to get you to hate me. But you knew going in that I carried a torch for your sister, much as it shames me to say it. Is it so impossible to believe that I can pine for her and care about you at the same time?"

"Answer just one question, Spike. If Buffy and I both loved you, who would you choose?"

'Where does she come up with this stuff,' Spike thought, 'the Teenager's Guide to Awkward Questions?' Spike looked at her teary eyes and did something he didn't often do. He told the truth. "I'm gonna tell it true, pet, but don't get your knickers in a twist until I'm finished. Deal?" Dawn nodded and Spike began.

"To be perfectly honest, I'd have to choose Buffy..." Dawn covered her mouth to muffle her sob.

"Hush…hush," Spike murmured, pulling her into his arms and stroking her hair. Suddenly, Spike felt Dawn's grip tighten as she bit hard into his shoulder.

"Oww! What'd you go and do that for?" Spike said in surprise.

"You're a vampire. Vampires like pain right? All that biting is supposed to be like a turn-on, isn't it? Buffy…Buffy's always beating you up, and you love her. I can be like Buffy...I can at least try. Please don't pick her. Please! I…I need you...!" Dawn's voice kept rising in intensity until it was almost piercing.

"Dawn, luv…you have to let me finish," he said softly. "I said I would choose Buffy; now let me tell you why. You asked what I would do if you both _loved_ me. Hell, I've loved the Slayer for...well...longer than is healthy. I've only just started taking a fancy to you. Of course I'd choose her. But see here. She doesn't love me. Believe it or not, she proved that the moment she kissed me. I could feel it. The way she kissed me made me feel empty, like I was nothing to her. Last time I felt that way was the final night I was human. I've been there and done that. No way I'm going back. Now a smart girl wouldn't ask a bunch of hypothetical questions…she'd just want to know who I would choose given the present circumstances."

Dawn looked up with hope in her eyes. "Who would you choose, Spike?"

"I choose you, nibblet." Dawn laughed and cried at the same time. He chose her! Spike brushed a tendril of hair behind Dawn's ear. He leaned in close, preparing to kiss her, but she stopped him with a hand on his chest.

"And just why should I let you back into my good graces?" Dawn said, her bravado back in full force.

"I already said that I choose you, pet. What else does a fellow have to do?"

Dawn got a mischievous look in her eye.

"Beg for me, Spike."


	8. Chapter 8

"Beg for me, Spike"

At Dawn's words, Spike's demeanor immediately changed. When he found out she had caught him with Buffy, he had felt like a forlorn lover who would do anything to get back in his love's good favors. But her taunting words sent a thrill through him. He went from looking like a whipped puppy whose tail was between its legs to a hungry wolf, ready to eat up the little girl in front of him. Keeping his eyes locked with hers the entire time, Spike slid off the couch and knelt before Dawn. With a cocky grin, he made a show of touching his forehead to the ground at her feet. Then he practically slithered off the ground and up her legs.

"Please forgive me, kitten," Spike said in his sexiest voice. He positioned himself between her legs and placed a kiss on the inside of her jean-clad knee. As he continued to crawl forward, her legs spread wider and wider apart to accommodate him. Spike continued his assault, planting soft kisses along the top of her thigh and then trailing his tongue across the waistband of her jeans until he reached her navel.

"Forgive me, pet and I will show how much fun begging can be."

Spike undid the button of her jeans with his teeth and continued to plant soft kisses on her stomach. Slowly, his hand slid up her leg and began to gently massage the juncture between her thighs. Dawn tensed slightly at the feel of his fingers pushing into places that she was barely comfortable touching herself, but when she opened her mouth to protest, all that came out were little mewls of pleasure. Taking that as a sign of encouragement, the vampire continued his explorations. But when he slowly began to lower her zipper with his teeth, Spike felt Dawn's whole body stiffen and pull away. Knowing better than to push his luck, he rested his head against her stomach, awaiting further instruction from Dawn before going any further.

"Alright, pet?" he asked softly as he tried to reign in his raging desire.

The whole time, Dawn had grown more and more excited, until she finally reached a point where she was panting heavily and her whole body was trembling. At first she had thought it would be fun to turn the tables on Spike, embarrass him and make him beg, but she again found herself mentally flailing for control. Her body was experiencing a slew of new sensations, but her mind was blowing all the warning bells and screaming "STOP!"

Dawn ran her fingers through Spike's hair, letting out a heavy sigh, but instead of pushing his head down, as he was so eager for her to do, she slid her fingers under his chin and brought his head up to look her in the eyes. "Not yet, Spike," she said with a shaky voice. "I'm just not ready. It's too much…too fast. We need to wait for my mind to catch up to my body. I don't want any regrets…not with you."

"Cor, luv...I could wait years for you. Hell, I could wait all of eternity. But, you might not have eternity. You might not even have years. Just remember, Carpe Diem and all that rot. Don't let too many opportunities pass you by."

Spike licked Dawn's belly-button one last time, a wistful grin plastered across his face, before he forced himself to comply to her wishes. He let his hands slide across her waist to her middle, but rather than slide her jeans down to the floor, he reverently buttoned them back up.

Dawn let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. She didn't know if she could have turned Spike down again. Her stomach muscles tightened every time he touched her, and just a look from him made her tingle all over. She couldn't even imagine how wonderful it would feel to let him have his way. But he was her first...anything, and she didn't want to rush into something she might regret later. It might be silly and romantic, but she wanted her first time to be special, with someone she loved, and as much as she wanted Spike, she wasn't sure she loved him. Not yet, anyway.

"So, where do we go from here, pet?"

Dawn extricated herself from around Spike, moving so that her legs were beside him rather than wrapped around his torso. But just because she wasn't ready to give him everything didn't mean she wanted to stop completely for the night. With a nervous look in her eyes, she timidly asked, "Could you teach me how to bite?"

Spike let out a low chuckle. The girl was playing with fire, asking him something like that just minutes after telling him to stop, but he was game for anything that allowed him to keep touching her. There was something addictive about her. Women who wanted him were a dime a dozen, but finding someone who truly cared about him was a rare prize. He was discovering that he would put up with quite a lot just to stay in her good graces. Of course, that didn't mean he wasn't going to toy with her just a bit.

"So, you want to learn to bite, eh? Well, it's not all that difficult. Open mouth, insert object, close mouth. Simple, really. Even a child could do it, supposing she had teeth and all."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it!" Dawn fumed, smacking Spike playfully on the shoulder. "The other night, when you bit me... you made me feel good all over."

"Well first off, if you want to play these games, you have to stop with the bloody euphemisms. I gave you an orgasm. C'mon... you can say it... or-gas-um. If you can't even say it, you certainly aren't old enough to experience it."

Dawn glared at Spike, resolve written across her face. "When you bit me, you gave me an ORGASM," Dawn said loudly, blushing despite herself. "I want to be able to make you feel good too, but I don't know how. When I bit you before, all I did was hurt you."

"It's all about the mood, luv. Hauling off and taking a chunk out of a fellow's shoulder isn't all that seductive. It's all about making the person want it...want it so badly it doesn't matter what the cost."

Spike peered deeply into Dawn's eyes, and she knew with absolute certainty that Spike had had much experience with this. Many years of experience. "It's a good thing you aren't that patient, Spike" Dawn said in a quavering voice. "I have a feeling you could seduce just about anyone into opening a vein if you took the time."

"Oh, believe me kitten, I have. I've had male and female alike screaming my name as I drained them dry, a smile still lingering on their faces as their empty corpses fell to the ground. Hell, if I'd known all it took was for human to take a fancy to being bitten, I wouldn't have come crawling to the Slayer and her lot, stupid sod that I was, beggin' for even a cup of pig's blood. That's no way to live. Humiliating it is."

Dawn recoiled as if she had been slapped. She shoved him away from her as hard as she could, yelling, "Well if that's how you feel, then why don't you just go? I showed you how to get around the chip... you don't need me anymore."

Spike leaned forward and wiped away the tears forming in Dawn's eyes, sighing slightly at her teenage theatrics. And she thought he was impatient? Honestly. "Don't you see, pet? I don't want anybody else. And here I thought it would make you feel special, knowing that I could have anyone and I choose you."

"Do...do you mean it? You really would rather have me?"

"Hell, luv. That's what I've been trying to tell you all night."

"But you can't survive off of just me. I don't have enough blood to keep you alive."

"Funny thing that. I haven't felt hungry since I fed off of you last night. Somethin' about your blood. It's special. It quenched the thirst like nothing I've ever tasted. Not even Slayer blood staved off the hunger that long. So maybe I can live off of just you...it'd be fun for both of us, I'd wager. And if I have to, I'll rob a blood drive. No more pig's blood for this vampire. A fellow has to have his dignity."

Dawn laughed at Spike. The whole time he was ranting about vampire pride, he had been on his knees at her feet. "Yeah, Spike. You're real dignified. Yup." Spike laughed too as he realized his predicament. With a mock growl, he lunged at Dawn, pinning her beneath him on his couch.

"Didn't anybody ever teach you not to make fun of a vampire?"

"Buffy does it all the time, and she gets away with it."

Spike stiffened for a second at the mention of Buffy's name. Then he let his good mood take precedence. "But you're not Buffy, kitten. I thought we'd already established that." Dawn's eyes glowed at his recognition that she was her own person and not an extension of Buffy. She was about to lean up and kiss him, when Spike continued, "And Buffy is also not currently pinned beneath a vampire. I'd say you are at a disadvantage, luv."

Dawn squirmed at the challenge in his voice, trying to get away, but Spike was too strong for her. With a wicked glint in her eye, Dawn decided to changer her tactics. She leaned up to nibble at Spike's neck while rubbing her leg up and down against his in a seductive manner. He loosened the grip on her hands as he closed his eyes and groaned. The distraction was enough, and Dawn slipped out from under him, causing him to plop down on his side, filling the spot on the couch where she had been moments before. Dawn giggled as she tried to run away, but Spike was too quick. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her onto his lap as he rotated into a sitting position. For the second time that evening, Dawn found herself with her legs wrapped around Spike's waist.

Dawn was flushed and excited. Amusement gleamed in her eyes. Spike leaned over and whispered, "So, are you ready to learn, nibblet?" Dawn steadied herself and nodded in agreement.

"Pay attention, luv. It'd be a shame to have to do this over and over again."

Dawn didn't miss the sarcasm in Spike's words, but she paid rapt attention anyway, wanting to be able to have the same effect on Spike that he had on her.

"Now, you have to start out slow...making sure the other person is relaxed." Spike began rubbing circles on Dawn's back as he peppered her neck with soft kisses. After an initial tensing, he could almost feel her melting in his arms.

"Then let your teeth graze the other person's neck. Light at first, then harder. Mix it up... never do the same thing for too long. Variety is the key." Spike lowered his lips to her neck, sliding them across her skin in a whisper of a touch. Then, letting his fangs extend, he grazed them lightly over her pulse point. His teeth switched back to blunt again as he bit down, hard enough to leave a slight indent.

"You getting the idea, luv?" Dawn had let her eyes drift shut and she was breathing heavily from the attention. "Yeah," she said in a distracted tone, "I think I'm getting it."

"This next part is the best for us bloodsuckers. When you get to sink your fangs into that warm, soft flesh and the blood fills your mouth. You'll have to live with merely biting down a bit hard at the point, unless, of course, bloodletting is your thing." Ending his speech, Spike attacked her neck again, still sucking gently for a moment before sinking his fangs into his mark from the night before.

Spike's earlier attentions had already put Dawn on edge, and his 'lesson' only served to reawaken her arousal. But the sudden feeling of his teeth inside her was too much, and she found herself once again achieving release at the bite of a vampire. A throaty moan escaped Dawn's mouth as Spike drank from her, his sucking pulsing in time with her body's spasms.

Spike was careful to take only a couple of mouthfuls before extracting his fangs and merely holding the trembling girl against his chest. She was enjoying herself so much that if he didn't watch himself, he would end up draining her dry without the chip ever once going off. But as much as he desired to finally feel the euphoria of the kill again, he wasn't willing to destroy Dawn for a single moment of fleeting pleasure. Especially not when he could have her blood over and over again.

Spike leaned his head back against the top of the couch, languidly savoring the taste of her blood in his mouth. To him, the gift of her blood meant much more than any sexual favors she could perform. It was a release much more potent than anything he could give her, and he expected nothing else in return. So he was totally unprepared when Dawn's mouth began to lave at his neck, causing his body to jump to attention.

"How am I doing, teacher?" Dawn murmured into his ear as she scratched her nails down his chest.

"I think you've got it, luv," he moaned, his eyes half-shut in lust and anticipation.

Dawn licked her way down to the juncture of his shoulder and neck, emboldened by Spike's encouragement. She began lightly nibbling before biting down hard, causing Spike to arch his back and growl something inarticulate. Dawn jumped when she felt something hard pushing into the inside of her thigh, but she did not stop her attack. She worked her way back up Spike's neck and trailed kisses along his jaw line until she reached his lips. She gave his lips the same treatment she'd given his neck. Sucking first before gently nibbling and biting. Spike wanted nothing more than to slam her to the ground and ravage her, but he clenched his fists and kept himself restrained. He felt the tentative nature of Dawn's lips against his, and he wanted to give her total control.

Dawn grew more confident as Spike let out small moans of desire. Bravely, she deepened the kiss, her tongue tentatively tasting the inside of his mouth. Again Spike found himself caught unawares as Dawn bit down hard on his bottom lip. A coppery taste assaulted her senses as Dawn hungrily suckled at Spike's mouth. Spike couldn't take it anymore. He slipped his hands under her shirt and around her waist, roughly pulling her closer to him. His fangs sliced her lip as he began to ravage her mouth with a vengeance. Both parties groaned as their blood mixed in each other's mouths.

Dawn's eyes snapped open as she felt her blood mingle with Spike's. The moment their blood intermixed, something changed. Suddenly the room was heavy with magic of the most ancient kind, and for a second she knew him. She could see every detail of his life, years' worth of knowledge in an instant. She saw even further back, to Drusilla and Angelus. All the way back to the first. She knew them all.

Spike experienced something very similar. A barrage of images flooded his vision, and he saw everything the monks had planted into her mind. But beyond that there was nothing. No images, no memories, only blindingly white light. Power seeped into him, effusing his being, as he clutched Dawn closer to him.

As their visions faded, Spike and Dawn were left gazing into each other's wide eyes. Trembling, Spike choked out, "Blood of my Blood I bind you," before they both collapsed into unconsciousness.

In the air, there was an almost palpable sensation of something being sealed before the magic drained from the room.


	9. Chapter 9

Dawn groggily opened her eyes as she began to regain consciousness. For the second day in a row, she was greeted with the sight of the cement ceiling of a crypt as she woke up. As if the painful pressure in her bladder hadn't already notified her, the faint sunbeams filtering through cracks in the stone at the far end of the crypt indicated that a new day was well underway. At least it was Saturday and she didn't have to worry about missing school again.

Dawn leaned up on her elbow and stared at the pale figure resting next to her. Even though the visions from the night before had long-since faded away, she still felt as though she knew him through and through. Her connection to him was deeper than it had ever been before. With a wistful sigh, she kissed him on the forehead. "Be here when I get back," she whispered.

With a speed that would make any runner envious, Dawn sprinted out the door and to the Visitor's Center. She had no desire for a repeat performance of the other morning. A dust-buster sized Spike was _not_ what she needed today. After quickly using the facilities, Dawn dashed past the attendant. He yelled something about it being unhealthy for young girls to spend so much time in the cemetery, but Dawn only half-heard him as she ran back to the crypt. When she opened the door, she was greeted with the sight of an empty couch, and her heart dropped to her stomach.

"Spike, where are you? Are you okay?" she asked fearfully.

Two cold arms snaked around her waist. "Missed me, did ya?" Spike grinned into her ear.

Dawn turned around and slapped Spike on the arm. "Don't DO that! You scared me!"

"And that's supposed to dissuade me, how? I'm a vampire, luv. Fear's a turn-on." Spike leered at her, waggling his eyebrows suggestively, causing Dawn to giggle.

"Yeah, right Spike. You can't hurt me."

"You…you take that back now, ya hear?" Spike ranted indignantly. "I'm a wicked, vicious killer who takes advantage of little tidbits like you all the bloody time."

"I'm sorry, Spike. You're a mean, bad vampire and I tremble whenever I see you," Dawn said in a placating tone.

"So I've noticed, luv," Spike purred as he licked her neck.

Dawn gasped as he touched her. Somehow everything seemed more intensified today. Still unused to romantic situations, her curiosity was able to win out over her lust. Forcing herself to separate from Spike before he could become too distracting, Dawn hopped up onto the stone coffin Spike had turned into a makeshift bed. Idly swinging her legs, she asked, "Spike, what happened last night?"

"We going through this again, are we? Don't they teach you kids sex ed or something in school these days?"

"I'm not talking about sex, Spike. And HEY, we didn't _have_ sex buster, just to get that straight. What I want to know is why I get all tingly every time you touch me."

Spike stalked towards where Dawn was sitting and said, "Well, kiddo, there's this cute little four-letter word called LUST that pops to mind…" Spike began to rub circles on Dawn's knee and gasped as he felt the connection she was talking about. Electricity practically shot up his arm.

"See, I told you," Dawn breathed out. "You...mentioned something about binding last night. M...maybe that has something to do with it?"

Spike took a step back, still trying to maintain his macho bravado. "Now, if you wanted to talk about binding, you should've just said so, kitten. I've got the silk scarves and handcuffs somewhere here abouts."

For a second, Dawn had a vision of herself handcuffed naked to a luxurious four poster bed in a candlelit room, a silk scarf tied tightly around her eyes. Dawn gasped, blushing brightly before shaking off the strange (almost foreign) thought and reprimanding Spike.

"Spike, I need you to be serious for just a second here. What did you do?"

Spike gave a theatrical sigh, holding his hand over his heart and feigning a hurt look. But another glare from Dawn caused him to hold up his hands in surrender and launch into an explanation.

"Well, it used to be that us vampires, we'd bind ourselves to a human every now and again. Could be convenient, havin' someone loyal who could walk about during the day. Or it could be to show a claim. Like a 'hands off' sign to other vamps."

"A claim?" Dawn asked softly.

"Yeah, a claim, so all the other bloodsuckers would know you'd taken a fancy to a particular human. Sometimes it was nice to sink into a bit of tight, hot quim after nothing but cold flesh for years on end..." Spike drifted off, seemingly lost in some fond memories.

Again, Dawn found her mind filled with strange images…visions of Spike locked in an intimate embrace with various women…sometimes multiple women. The second woman was always the same, a pale, dark-haired beauty with crazed eyes who seemed far too familiar for her liking. Dawn had to force herself to not be jealous of these oddly vivid figments of her imagination (she stubbornly refused to believe that these could be bits of the memories she had seen the night before…because she could never possibly compare to women such as these).

"Ahem...Spike. Can we focus please? I don't really need a recap of your sex life for the past hundred years."

"Sorry 'bout that," Spike mumbled, looking slightly abashed. "Anyways, usually the binding was just a formality. You'd say some words, exchange a token amount of blood in front of the minions, and that was that. Anyone touched your human, and they were dust. Sometimes, if a bloke actually felt something for the chit he was claiming, you'd see some stuff. Shadows of memories and the like. An exchange of sorts...you'd each have a tiny part of the other inside ya. But I never felt anything like last night. You consumed me like no other."

"Wow..." Dawn said in awe. "Do you think it's because I'm the Key? Maybe I made the link stronger or something."

"That could be part of it. I feel stronger than I have in...ever, and I'm thirsty in the only for you' sort of way. But maybe I've just takin' a shining to you, nibblet."

"Really?" Dawn said, having trouble articulating more than a few words at a time as she slowly began to realize how deeply Spike cared for her.

"The stronger the feelings, the stronger the bond. And from the way you're reacting to just me looking at ya, I'd say our bond is iron-clad." That said, Spike leaned up to kiss her. Dawn had to stoop slightly to give him access, the stone sarcophagus she was sitting on being a bit high.

Spike laid his head in Dawn's lap. "Ever notice what a perfect height these stone slabs are?" he said as spread her legs slightly. "So many enticing possibilities..." He moved to place a kiss between her thighs and Dawn snapped her legs shut.

"How many times am I going to have to say no, Spike?"

"One less than the number of times it takes for you to say yes, pet."

Spike had an incorrigible grin on his face, sending shivers down her spine. When he smiled at her like that, she was tempted to give him…practically anything. "Describe it to me Spike. I've heard Willow and Tara talk, but I have no idea what it feels like. Tell me how it feels..."

"So the little kitten gets off on a bit of dirty pillow talk does she?" Spike chuckled with glee. "Well, seeing as I'm not female and all, I can't quite tell it from the girl's end of things, but I can tell you what it's like to lick a gal till she explodes. It's great... like eating an ice cream cone. First you start out with a few long licks, from the base all the way to the top. Place a few open-mouthed kisses on the top, sucking gently. Then things start to drip. You have to lick faster just to keep up with it. No matter what, your face is gonna get all sticky, but it's worth it just to savor that flavor. It's dripping so much you have to lick everywhere to keep it from spilling over. Once you get down to the cone, you might dip your tongue inside a few times, feel around the inside walls of the cone, make sure you get every last drop, then in a few more bites, or sucks as the case may be, you're finished, and you have your last explosion of taste before it's all over. Then nothing is left but the sticky remnants on your face, and a very satisfied partner if you've done your job right."

Dawn didn't even realize it, but as Spike was talking, she had leaned back on the coffin-bed and spread her legs a bit. "Ah, I see we have an eager customer," Spike leered. Dawn didn't know what to say. She couldn't deny that she wanted Spike, and that she was very, _very_ curious. Luckily, she was saved the misfortune of having to make a choice when her sister barged into the crypt. Dawn sat bolt upright and snapped her legs together.

"Buffy! Hi! Um...hi! What are you doing here?" Dawn squeaked.

"What, a big sister can't be concerned after leaving her sister alone with a soulless vampire all night long? You seem a bit shaken up. Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, really I am. You just startled me, that's all. I wasn't totally awake yet."

"Well, I'm glad you've finally rejoined the land of the living, it being after three o'clock and all" Buffy said with forced cheerfulness. "I thought maybe you and I could do the big sister-little sister bonding thing today. Things have been kind of stressed lately, and it would be nice to hang out, just the two of us."

"I guess that would be ok," Dawn said, a hint of trepidation in her voice. "What about Spike?"

"Um, Spike...sunny day...usually the two don't mix."

"I mean, you aren't going to hurt him or anything as soon as I leave are you?"

"No, Dawn. I promise I won't hurt Spike unless he really deserves it." Dawn and Spike both raised their eyebrows, and Buffy explained. "Deserving it meaning he tries to hurt and/or kill you or anyone that I love. But for some reason, he seems bound and determined to help us, whether we want it or not. So who am I to turn down help? I mean, he's got a chip, so it's not like he can hurt you, right?"

"Hey! That's not fair! I'm still plenty bad. Don't go thinkin' I'm all safe," Spike grumbled in protest.

Dawn hurried to silence him. "Spike, not helping things here."

"Right. Yeah. Sorry."

Buffy glared at Spike, but managed to hold her tongue. "C'mon, Dawn. Let's get out of here." She took Dawn's hand and helped her down from the stone casket. "Spike," Buffy nodded stiffly in good-bye.

"Slayer," Spike said, just as formally.

"Bye, Spike," Dawn waved as she began to walk towards the door. "See you later."

"Don't' count on it," Buffy said coldly. At her sister's glare, she softened her tone. "Doing the family bonding thing now, remember. You can probably spare one night without Spike's company."

Dawn just smiled at Spike, knowing that if she needed him, she'd find a way out of her house.

"So, where are we going?" Dawn asked as they walked out the door.

"Well, I'd thought we'd take a walk... maybe get some ice cream," Buffy suggested.

Dawn blanched as Spike's words came flying back into her brain. "Dawn, honey, are you ok? You look a little pale."

"Yeah...yeah. I'm fine...really," Dawn said shakily, Spike's 'pillow talk' still echoing in her mind.

Inside, the sound of a deep chuckle rumbled through the crypt.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: **It recently dawned on me that this fic tweaks the timeline of the series just a bit. In the timeline of my fic, Spike has already professed his love for Buffy and even ordered the Buffybot (but not received it yet), but Joyce is still alive and hasn't had her operation yet. It's been so long since season five aired, I'd be surprised if anyone really noticed, but I figured I'd say something anyway.

Ok, on to the chapter…and it is one doozy of a chapter…my longest yet!

* * *

Dawn sagged against the wall of her bedroom, a relieved look on her face. Alone at last. Double-checking that her door was locked, Dawn picked up a pen and began to write in her journal.

_Buffy was in major cling mode today. I mean, yeah, it was cool that she didn't totally flip over me spending the night with Spike...I mean, spending the night in the crypt, not **with** Spike in the having sex with him sort of way... but she just wouldn't leave my side all afternoon. I barely made it through eating ice cream. Every time I took a bite, I just kept imagining Spike's little metaphor. Only he would compare oral sex with eating ice cream...can we say oral fixation? He has such a nice mouth though. He has a nice everything. Arrgh! He's so distracting. No wonder Buffy was getting worried...I guess I can't blame her though. I mean, one second I'm staring off into space, letting my ice cream melt, and the next I inhale my ice cream cone as fast as possible. The whole time I couldn't stop thinking about him. I don't know if I will ever be able to look at ice cream the same way again._

_I was hoping after ice cream we would just go home, but oh no. Buffy wanted to talk. She kept asking me about Spike. I told her we were just friends, but I know she didn't buy that. I finally got her to shut up when I reminded her of how close she and Spike seemed the other day and maybe it was **her** who was denying feelings for a certain bleached-blonde vampire. She sputtered and swore that she had absolutely no feelings for Spike other than loathing. You should have seen the shade of purple she turned when I patted her on the arm and said suuure.' Talk of Spike was thus ended. Man, I am getting good. _

_After that lovely set of awkward moments, we chilled at the Magic Box for a bit before going home. Once we got there, mom wanted to do the bonding thing too. For the second night in a row she cooked a huge meal, although it was just her, me, and Buffy tonight. I hope she's not overdoing herself. I mean, I don't want her to get sick because of me. She's going back to the hospital for another check-up tomorrow. So far she's been able to stay home, but I've noticed her getting weirder and weirder. She keeps forgetting stuff and her head hurts all the time. I don't know what I will do if she's really sick. I'm so glad I have Spike to lean on. If it weren't for Spike, I don't think I could deal with everything that's going on. I've been crushing on him for ages, but things have changed. It's more than that now. I think I'm falling in love with him..._

Dawn set her journal down with a sigh. She really did have it bad. Even though she'd just seen Spike the night before, Dawn still missed him. She wanted nothing more than to curl up in his cold arms and stay there all night, but she knew that she needed to sleep in her own bed tonight no matter how much it pained her. She was half afraid her sister might place her under house arrest if she snuck out again. She was just thinking of getting ready for bed when she heard a pounding on her door.

* * *

"What the hell do you want?" Spike shouted in the general direction of his door. His immediate goal was to go out and kill something, and he didn't fancy any company. He would have made an exception for Dawn, of course, but he could sense that it wasn't her. He desperately hoped that it wasn't one of the bloody Slayer's friends. He just didn't have it in him to be nice to them tonight.

"Bout time you lot learned to knock," Spike said with a growl as he opened the door. It took him a moment to realize that it wasn't actually the Slayer come to harass him again. It was her robotic facsimile, along with a pale, geeky boy…her creator, Warren.

"Hey, Spike...you seem awfully busy here's your robot bye!" Warren rambled before quickly turning and attempting to run away from the irate vampire.

Spike grabbed the retreating figure by the back of the neck. "Not leaving so soon are we? Some blokes might call that impolite. Oh, you'd like to come in and sit down? How wonderful." Spike threw Warren onto his couch. He looked in horror at the robotic copy of Buffy standing before him before quickly bringing it inside, praying to anything that could hear him that no one had seen it.

"Ooh Spike, you're so big and strong. I just love it when you get rough with me!" the Buffybot crooned.

"Sit down, will you!" Spike yelled at the clinging robot. The Buffybot slid down Spike's body and sat at his feet. She leaned back on her arms and spread her legs wide. "Take me now, you big, scary man!"

"Turn her off! For God's sake, turn the thing off," Spike yelled in horror.

"Buffy, sleep mode," Warren ordered. With a slight exhale of air, the robot leaned back on the ground, looking more dead than asleep, its legs still spread wide in a mockery of eroticism.

"Wh…what's wrong? I did everything you wanted. Even all the...special programming. Please let me go," Warren whined.

Spike looked down at the prone form of the Buffybot. He couldn't help his body's reaction. Physically, he was more than willing to do what the robot had asked. His arousal was proof of that. But mentally, he couldn't imagine himself sleeping with Buffy. Not anymore.

"Well see, things change they do. I've decided that I don't want a sexbot anymore. Man's gotta have his dignity and all."

Warren got up to leave, running towards the door, and Spike grabbed him again. "Not thinking about leaving are we?" Spike said. His eyes flashed yellow as he dragged Warren back into the crypt. "Not nice of you to not let me finish. You see, I'm a reasonable man, and I appreciate all the hard work you've gone through. I've decided I'll keep the robotic wench...with a few slight modifications. How's about we change the programming on our new toy? What's the time frame on a little bitty programming overhaul? A few hours you say, that's wonderful!"

"A few hours!" Warren exclaimed. "Programming is a delicate thing. You haven't even told me what you want changed yet. You can't expect me to do this all in one night!" Warren struggled to get away, but he was too afraid of Spike to actually fight back in earnest.

"Sit down," Spike said, accentuating his words with a shove. "All comfy, are we? Good...now take notes." With that, Spike began to list his new specifications for the robot.

* * *

Dawn violently swung open her door and yelled, "what the hell do you want?"

Buffy stepped back in shock. "Well, I was going to ask if anything was wrong, since you were going to bed so early and all, but I guess you just answered _that_ little question. Now, 'fess up... what is going on? I want to help."

Dawn stepped aside and let Buffy pass, a confused look on her face. "I...I'm sorry Buffy. I don't know what came over me. When I heard you knocking on the door, I suddenly got so angry, like the last thing in the world I wanted to see was you or your bloody sidekicks."

Buffy raised her eyebrows, "My bloody sidekicks'? Care to tell me where that came from?"

"Umm...watching too much British television lately? You know how much I love that BBC America channel," Dawn laughed nervously.

"Dawn, I really think it's about time we talked about your sick obsession with Spike. I know I'm the big, bad sister and you don't want to talk to me about anything, but I'm concerned about your feelings for Spike. Two nights in a row, you've slept in a _crypt_ for goodness sake. And now you're imitating him. That's so of the not healthy."

Dawn shoved Buffy hard, causing her to fall back into a sitting position on the bed. "Sit down!" Dawn yelled. "You're just jealous. Spike will _never_ sleep with you. NEVER! You are repulsive to him now."

Dawn turned and spoke to what seemed to be nobody. "Turn her off! How do you turn it off?" Dawn screamed before collapsing onto the floor, sobbing in frustration at her lack of control over her own words and actions.

Buffy was confused and more than a bit worried. "Dawn, honey...you have to talk to me. You're acting crazy, and I think I know why. What I did the other night was _wrong_. I should never have come on to Spike like that. I just wanted to show you that he isn't who you think he is, but in the process I ended up being the bad guy. But you have to believe me...I never wanted to hurt you. Please... tell me what's going on. Tell me how to fix things between us."

Buffy stroked Dawn's hair as she cried. "Buffy," Dawn cried," I think there's something wrong with me. It's like I'm feeling things that are totally foreign. Thoughts that aren't my thoughts…emotions that aren't my emotions. I can't control it."

Buffy helped Dawn off the floor and they both sat down on the edge of the bed. "Sweetie, you are growing up, and as if that isn't hard enough, you have to deal with all kinds of things of the supernaturally wacky. Of course you are going to be feeling a lot of strange emotions, and they may seem like they are foreign, but we all go through them."

"You don't understand, Buffy. Something is really wrong."

"Then why don't you talk to me about it. I'm more than willing to listen. Here, I'll even close the door. Nothing you say leaves this room. I'm certain whatever you're feeling is perfectly normal." Buffy got up and shut the door, and as she turned around, Dawn grabbed her arm and threw her across the room.

"Not thinking about leaving so soon, are we?" Dawn growled as her eyes glowed yellow.

"Ok, maybe I was wrong," Buffy squeaked. "Glowing eyes are definitely _not_ of the normal!" Buffy gripped Dawn's shoulders and shook her. "Dawn...are you in there? Can you hear me?"

"I...I'm here Buffy. I'm just not feeling quite like myself today," she said woozily before she fainted.

"Oh my God," Buffy exclaimed. "Giles...I need Giles. He'll know what to do."

* * *

Spike staggered a bit and held his head as he swayed. "Bloody hell," he muttered as he ceased his pacing and sat down on Warren's couch. He was definitely regretting his decision to come over here and have the sexbot reprogrammed. This was taking far too long, and he couldn't seem to control his urges to strangle the annoying programmer. Thanks to the fancy knick knack in his brain, his murderous thoughts were giving him quite the headache.

"Spike...are you ok?" Warren asked nervously. "You're not hungry are you, because I've got sour blood. Totally unappetizing. Not at all good for whetting an appetite. Yup, eating me would be bad. I'd never finish the robot that way either."

"Would you _please_ shut up, you bloody ponce?" Spike growled as he regained his composure. "I'm not going to eat you. I've just got this bloody computer chip in my skull. Gives me headaches sometimes." Spike tensed as he realized he probably shouldn't have divulged that little tidbit of information.

"Wait, you're like…a vampire cyborg?" Warren asked, his fear suddenly replaced with morbid curiosity.

"Sorry to disappoint. I know robots get you all hot and bothered, but I am a full-fledged, demon-possessed vampire. One who will rip out your soddin' throat if you don't finish my toy in the very near future. I just happen to have a government chip inside my bleedin' skull. I conned some government doctor to give it to me. Told him I wouldn't eat his children if he did. The thing was supposed to make me smarter, help me win my battles and such, but it gives me the worst headaches," Spike spun the false tale with ease, trying to cover up the slip he had made by mentioning the chip to Warren.

"Wow, what I wouldn't give to get a look at that," Warren practically drooled. "It must be really high tech."

Spike laughed derisively at Warren. "Yeah right, like you'd know enough to get it out. You're just a second rate programmer, you are, not a brain surgeon. You just work on fixin' up miss dolly all nice and neat now."

Warren grumbled to himself as he closed the Buffybot back up, the reprogramming complete. Luckily for him, it had been more of an addition of a supplemental hard drive with extra information than a true programming overhaul, so it had taken much less time than he originally feared.

"If you wanted the robot to receive medical programming so you could get the chip out, it won't work. The stuff you asked for is so she could take care of a patient, not actually do surgery. Anyway, you have to know a lot about human physiology to make a robot just like a human. I used to go to med school before I got into computers. If you give me a chance, I bet I could get that chip out no problem. I'll do it if you let me keep it once I'm done. I would love to get my hands on some government technology like that."

"Pasty-faced little boy like you fancies himself a doctor. My luck, you'd probably paralyze me," Spike snorted in feigned disgust.

"I'm telling you, I can do it. A vampire like you can't afford to look weak by getting headaches all the time. Signs of weakness are bad, aren't they? I wouldn't trust myself with a human, but you're a vampire. They heal up quickly, right? C'mon, give me a chance. A friend of mine deals with patients of the...unhuman...kind. His lab is not too far from here. Give me a few hours and we'll both be better off. You're new toy can even assist."

Spike pretended to be thinking it over, but inside his demon was rejoicing. FREEDOM, it screamed. Spike was grudgingly impressed with the cowardly boy. Who would have thought he wasn't totally oblivious to the unnatural side of Sunnydale? "Ok, kid. I'll give you a chance. No more headaches for me...a sweet piece of new-age fancy tin for you. Let's go."

* * *

Buffy panted as she kicked on Giles' door. "Giles! Giles...let me in. You have to be here! Open the door!"

Giles raced down the stairs and opened the door. He stepped aside, not actually inviting them in on the slight chance something unspeakable had happened and they had been turned. Buffy allayed his fears by darting inside, carrying Dawn.

"Good Lord, Buffy. What happened? Is that your mother's car parked halfway on my lawn? You could have been killed, driving that way!"

"I didn't know what to do Giles. I couldn't let Mom find out, so I borrowed the car without telling her. She has enough to worry about, what with going to the hospital tomorrow and all. But Dawn, she started acting all funny and collapsed. She...she was acting like Spike, growling and being all vamp-like…glowing eyes and all. Then she fainted. You don't think she's a vampire do you?" Buffy asked, worry clouding her judgment.

"Well, I can't say for certain what's wrong, but I can guarantee you she's not a vampire. The pulse, warm skin and lack of you bouncing out the door when you ran in gives me evidence of that. Now please, tell me everything that happened."

"Dawn and I were talking and she started acting all...well...Spike-like. She called you and the gang my bloody sidekicks' and when I got up to close the door so mom wouldn't hear us talking, she growled at me and her eyes glowed yellow. She tried to tell me something was wrong, and I didn't understand. Then it was like she couldn't take it anymore and she collapsed. I ran here as fast as I could. You were the only one I could think to turn to."

"I'm touched that you feel you can turn to me, really I am, but honestly Buffy. You wouldn't have done Dawn any favors if you had crashed the car on the way here. You must learn to exercise some restraint, no matter how desperate the situation."

"My little sister is channeling a vampire, Giles! Obeying traffic laws isn't the first thing that pops to mind. Now help her!" Buffy cried. "Please..." she added softly.

Giles took Dawn and carefully set her down on the couch. Shaking her gently, he said "Dawn, dear. Can you hear me?"

Dawn sat bolt upright and screamed. "My head...my head!" she moaned before laying back down, tossing and turning on the couch.

Giles backed away from Dawn and spoke quietly to Buffy. "If she really is channeling Spike, as you suggest, he may have just tried to harm a living thing. Perhaps the wisest course of action would be to find Spike and bring him back here for observation."

"I don't want that monster anywhere near my sister. She's obsessed with him, and I'm afraid of what he will do to her. Even if he can't hurt her, he can do other things. I mean, he is a functioning man after all, if you get my drift."

"And here I thought he was quite keen on taking _you_ as a lover, not your sister," Giles said sourly, the idea of it making him shudder slightly in disgust.

"Things change," Buffy said evasively, not wanting to fill him in on how Spike had rejected her advances the other day. "I think he's finally clued in to the fact that he'll never have me, and he's switched to vengeance mode. What better way to hurt me than to go after my sister? Even if Spike can't kill, he could still get his jollies from corrupting an innocent."

"But that doesn't explain why Dawn would be channeling Spike's behavior. Are you certain that this isn't just her way of getting attention? You are the Slayer after all, and she does tend to be left out of most of what you do. Perhaps she wants a bit of the limelight herself."

"Are we forgetting the part where her eyes _glowed yellow_? That is not normal little-girl-acting-out behavior. Something is seriously wrong, Giles."

"So very little is known about the nature of the Key. It was certainly never intended that the Key should fall in love. Perhaps these are the side-effects of her unique nature."

"Whoa...hold on a second. Where did you get the idea that Dawn is in love with Spike? That is so not true!"

"Well, as much as we all disapprove, Dawn has managed to spend quite a bit of her free time with Spike. And yesterday afternoon when you brought her back to the Magic Box, I noticed her drawing the words Spike and Dawn' in bubble letters inside of a heart on the back of a notebook. Now I may be an old fuddy-duddy whom you think is out of touch with life as you know it, but isn't that commonly a young teenager's way of signaling feelings for someone?"

"Ewww! How could you let her do that? That's just...eww!"

"Well, Buffy. I don't feel it is my place to reprimand Dawn for what she feels. I know what it's like to have feelings for someone whom others may deem inappropriate."

Shuffling uncomfortably at Buffy's raised eyebrow, Giles pulled at his collar and quickly looked away. "Ahem...yes, well... I was young once too. So long as her affection for Spike is nothing more than a schoolgirl's crush, I will not attempt to alter her feelings. Lord knows trying to meddle didn't do any good with you and Angel…made the situation worse, if I do recall. Perhaps if left to run their course, these feelings will go away on their own. But know this…if I ever thought Spike would do anything to hurt her…let's just say his death would be a slow, painful inevitability."

As they talked, Dawn had quieted down. She was no longer clasping her forehead, and her eyes had taken on a dreamy, glazed-over look. Noticing her calm, Buffy and Giles rushed to her side.

"Dawn, honey, are you ok?" Buffy asked worriedly.

"Mmmm...better now," Dawn muttered happily.

Not knowing quite what to do, Buffy chose to sit vigil by her side rather than hunt down Spike. As Buffy worried over her sister, Giles began researching to find anything more about the Key.

* * *

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!" Spike screamed in pain. "You bloody, soddin' son of a whore!" He grabbed Warren and pulled him close to his face, fangs elongated and demon very much visible. "Vampire's feel pain too, you ponce! Local anesthetic...NOW!"

Spike moaned as he waited for Warren to find the painkillers. He should have known better than to trust a human, but he was sick of not being able to hunt and kill. Finding out that Warren could do more than build robots had been an accidental stroke of good fortune. But that didn't change the fact that he had just had a doctor's saw cut into his forehead with no anesthetic.

"I'm so sorry. Please don't kill me! It...it was a misunderstanding. When you refused to let me put you under, I thought that meant you wouldn't need painkillers." Warren quickly took a needle and began injecting an anesthetic into the area where he would be operating. "Don't worry...there won't be any more mistakes. I promise," he simpered.

Like hell he'd let the git put him under, Spike seethed internally. That was a surefire way to become a pile of dust in the trash bin. He had no illusions that the cowardly boy wouldn't just stake him once he had the chip extracted if Spike were to let his guard down.

Gradually, a blessed numbness spread through his skull, and Spike calmed considerably as the painkillers took effect. "Better now," he growled, and Warren began to work. It wasn't long until he had found the offending chip. He was deeply grateful that the X-rays had shown it to be near the surface of the frontal lobe, directly under the forehead. Spike had looked ready to murder him when he suggested shaving off his 'beautiful blond locks' as part of the prep for surgery. But given the location, that hadn't been necessary.

"This is amazing," he whispered in awe, his fear forgotten. "Technology like this is supposed to be years into the future. But no wonder it was giving you such headaches. It's in the totally wrong part of the brain for enhancing mental functions. The way they put it in, it almost looks like a behavior modification device."

Spike stiffened, but Warren was oblivious to the discovery he had just made. He continued muttering to himself, more focused on obtaining the chip for himself than anything else. The Buffybot watched and assisted when she could. Warren took the chip out with a satisfied sigh, ogling it for a moment before replacing the small bit of Spike's skull he had removed and gathering the supplies to stitch him back up. However, it soon became apparent that stitches would not be necessary as Spike's skull sealed back together before his very eyes. Soon, there was nothing but an angry red patch of skin where a hole in his head had been just moments earlier. Warren had no doubt that even that mark would be gone within the hour.

"Blood," Spike moaned. "Need blood."

Warren backed away in fear. "Hey man, I did what you said. You promised not to hurt me. A deal's a deal."

Spike growled and pointed. "Cooler..." he groaned. The Buffybot opened up the cooler Spike had instructed her to bring with them. Inside were several bags of blood. She gave two of them to Spike and he savagely ripped them open and slurped them down, one after the other. "Now there's the ticket," Spike murmured in a satisfied tone.

"Good, great. We're done right? I can go?"

"The robot's all ship-shape, yes?"

"Yeah, she's got everything you asked for. I added everything you wanted. She's a regular Doogie Houser. Bye now."

"Yeah, mate. We're through. Have a nice life and all." This time Spike really did let the scared boy run out the door. Normally, it would be his policy to kill any witnesses to his weakness, but he wanted to be absolutely certain things were back to normal before he attempted to kill the git. After all, Warren was the only one who would possibly be willing to fix his problem if things weren't as ship shape as they seemed.

"Shall I take you home, Spike?" the Buffybot asked.

"Lead the way, girly," Spike said with a sigh. Leaning against her for support, he managed to fight his light-headedness and make it back to his crypt.

"I'm bloody knackered," Spike sighed, plopping down on his makeshift bed. "If it's all the same to you, I'm gonna grab forty winks."

"Whatever makes you happy is my desire, Spike. Let's get you out of those clothes. They still have blood on them." Spike was passive as the Buffybot stripped him, too tired to protest much. Once he was completely free of his blood-stained garments, he slipped under the covers.

The robot began rubbing circles over his tired muscles. "My prime directive is to make you happy. I was told that your wish was for me to keep the true Buffy and her family safe, but there are other ways to make someone happy." As she said this, her hands slipped beneath the covers and between his legs.

Spike yelped and jumped up, wincing slightly as the quick movements caused a bolt of pain to shoot through his head. "Hell, what do you think you are doing? Bloody git said he reprogrammed you. I'm gonna kill him!"

"The Creator did reprogram me; he added much knowledge to my original database, but my prime directive is still the same. Make Spike happy. I have many ways of doing that now instead of just one."

Spike put his hands up to keep her away. "You don't understand. Normally, I would fuck the fillings out of a pretty little dish like you, but it would destroy my…my…Dawn if she caught me messin' around with anyone else...especially some freakish clone of her sister."

"Dawn. Sister of Buffy. The Key. Protect at all costs. You love this Dawn?" The Buffybot asked.

"Um, well...I...Hey! I don't have to answer to you!"

"You're tired and sore, Spike. Let me help. Close your eyes," she commanded. "Go ahead, close them." Spike made sure he was still at arms length from the robot before complying. The Buffybot came close to him and whispered in his ear, "I can be Dawn." Suddenly, it was Dawn's voice coming out of the machine instead of Buffy's.

Spike's eyes snapped open. "Bloody Hell! How'd you manage that one?"

"Tsk, tsk Spike. Keep your eyes closed. Doctor's orders." The Buffybot said, still using Dawn's voice. She did a quick search of the room and found Spike's stash of bondage toys. She grabbed a silk scarf and tied it around his eyes. Then she pushed him back down on his bed and climbed on top of him. "I can give you what you want, Spike. I can give you what Dawn is too young to provide." Spike gripped the robot's hips and moaned. It's not like Dawn would ever have to find out.

"My Dawn, how you've grown," he murmured.

* * *

Buffy stroked Dawn's hair while Giles continued to research. Suddenly, Dawn's eyes snapped open. "What the hell are you doing?" she yelled, pushing Buffy away. "Stay away from me!" Her voice had taken on a slight English accent as she scrambled frantically to keep Buffy from her.

Giles was by Dawn's side in an instant. "Dawn, my dear. You must calm down. Tell us what's wrong, and we'll do our best to help you."

Dawn's eyes were still wide, but they did not see the two people gazing at her with concern in their eyes. She saw nothing...only felt the mixture of shame, desire and disgust as they warred within her. Then she felt the liquid heat of acceptance as a sharp jolt of pleasure suddenly filled her body. Ghostly hands skimmed her flesh, and a phantom lover seemed to fill her and encase her all at once. "Spike..." she gasped, throwing her head back with a moan.

* * *

"Dawn..." Spike groaned, pushing into the cold body above him. He imagined the lithe form of Dawn as he ravaged the willing robot. His fingers would have bruised the hips of any human, his grip was so harsh. But, as pleasurable as this was, deep down, he knew that this was wrong…that this _thing_ could never be his Dawn.

For a second, he tried to pull away, ignoring how his head swam from even that small exertion. "Not real...not real," he murmured.

"I'm as real as you want me to be," the robot replied as she gently pushed Spike back down and continued her ministrations.

* * *

"Not real...not real," Dawn cried, her fingers clawing at the edge of the sofa. Her breath was coming in gasps as her body writhed and bucked.

Tears streamed down Dawn's face as she tried to fight the feelings surging inside of her. Giles gripped her shoulders and shook her hard. "Dawn...DAWN! You must come back to us. Dawn!"

"Spike!" Dawn screamed as she sat bolt upright, a high-pitched keening sound emanating from the back of her throat.

* * *

"Dawn!" Spike gasped weakly, sickened at his lack of control as he spent himself inside the robot. A long moan escaped his throat as his orgasm shook through him.

* * *

Both Dawn and Spike collapsed into unconsciousness as their pleasure subsided, the cumulative experiences of the day too much for either of them. Without a word, the Buffybot removed herself from Spike's grip and covered him tenderly with a blanket. Silently, she went and sat in a corner, awaiting the next time she could find a way to please her new master.

* * *

**A/N:** I hope the bit with the brain surgery seemed believable. I figured that since in the series we never saw Spike with a shaved head or anything, the chip must be in a pretty easy place to access. But I know nothing about surgery, so if it seemed all wrong, I'm sorry.

Oh, and if you like the story, please review! The reviews definitely help keep me going.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: **A big thanks to everyone who has reviewed. You guys really help keep me going. Oh, I should also warn you, I'm going to start weaving a bit more Buffy/Giles into the story. Spike/Dawn is still the main focus, but I adore the B/G pairing, so I'm throwing a little of that in too. Hope that doesn't squick anyone.

* * *

Dawn groaned as she sat up, feeling for all intents and purposes like she had a hangover… minus the whole getting drunk part. Her head throbbed and her body ached. Tentatively, she moved to sit up, keeping her movements slow.

"Did anyone get the number of the truck that hit me?" she said to the quiet room.

At her feet, two sleeping figures began to stir. Buffy had curled up in Giles's lap, her arms around his waist. With a start, the Watcher and Slayer woke up and hurriedly disentangled from each other.

"Whoa, I must have been out for a while. Since when have you two been all cozy?" Dawn asked, a smirk on her face.

Buffy quickly scrambled to get off the floor and put as much distance as possible between her and Giles. "I'm gonna go make tea or something," she said hurriedly as she scampered to the kitchen.

Giles moved to sit next to Dawn on the couch. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he began to explain. "I'm not certain how much of last night you remember, but your behavior was…erratic…to put it mildly. Buffy and I...we were merely sitting watch by your side, to ensure your safety. During the course of the night, we must have fallen asleep. I assure you nothing untoward occurred." Despite his protestations, Giles seemed extremely flustered by Dawn's taunting words.

"Then why are you blushing?" Dawn asked, feigning innocence.

Buffy emerged from the kitchen, several cups of tea in hand. She leapt to defend Giles as she distributed steaming mugs to everyone. "It's all my fault, Dawn. Really. So leave the old guy alone. I refused to leave your side last night, so Giles sat down with me to keep me company. We both kind of fell asleep, and at some point during the night I turned Giles into a pillow. I mean, he's a lot more comfy than a cold, hard floor."

Buffy totally missed the mixed emotions flying across Giles's face. First anguish at being referred to as 'the old guy' and then a warm sort of elation at being deemed a good pillow.

"Yes...well, a...a Watcher's job is to serve his Slayer through all manner of hardship. Even if that hardship happens to be the threat of a hard floor. My aching back is well worth the knowledge that my Slayer slept the night through in ease."

Dawn giggled at Giles's dry sarcasm. "Hey...since when did you get a sense of humor, Giles?" Dawn asked, still in a teasing mood after finding Giles's in such an un-Watcherlike position.

"I have many talents, I assure you. Unappreciated as they may go," Giles said, a hint of bitterness creeping into his voice.

Frowns creased the foreheads of both Dawn and Buffy. Dawn, however, was the first to assure Giles of his worth. "No! Humor's good. Girls just love a guy with a good sense of humor. Don't they Buffy? And, hey! If your back really hurts, I bet Buffy could like give you a massage later or something and make you feel a lot better."

"Dawn, what are you doing?" Buffy asked, not liking the direction the conversation was going.

"It...it's just, you and Mr. Giles make a nice couple, that's all," Dawn said, trying to suppress a grin from breaking out on her face. This was a great way to keep Buffy's attention away from the topic of her and Spike.

Buffy's expression was unreadable. She had fought hard to never think of Giles as anything more than stuffy Watcher guy, but she couldn't deny that at the very least, he had become one of her closest friends. She realized that two pairs of eyes were staring intently at her, waiting for a response. Not willing to even begin to examine what her feelings might be in front of either Dawn or Giles, she made the appropriate outraged face and exclaimed, "Oh. My. God. Giles and I are so _not_ a couple! Where on Earth did you get that idea?"

"It's just that Mr. Giles is so sweet, and you two have to be together like, forever, anyway since he's your Watcher and all. It makes perfect sense. And...and you're lonely...he's lonely. Maybe you could like, stop being lonely together?" Dawn smiled nervously as

Buffy and Giles stared at her, incredulous looks on their faces.

Giles buried his disappointment at Buffy's clearly negative reaction and leapt into the conversation, intent upon making himself seem just as uninterested. "Dawn, dear, while I am sincerely flattered that you think so highly of me, I don't know if it is all together appropriate for you to be...how do you say...'fixing me up' with anyone, least of all, your sister. The sentiment is appreciated, but I must ask that you leave me to find my own companionship, if and when I so desire it." Giles again had a flustered look on his face, cracking his composure, and this time it was not lost on Buffy.

Rather than forcing the issue right then, Buffy tucked away that tiny piece of knowledge to be examined later and instead brought the focus back to Dawn. "I know what this is about!" Buffy exclaimed. "You're afraid that I'm gonna go after Spike again. Believe me…you have nothing to worry about. I wouldn't touch his undead ass with a ten-foot pole, and honestly, I don't think you should see him anymore either. But you certainly don't need to fix me up just so I stay away from Spike."

Giles went from being flustered to baffled. Since when had Spike become an object of debate between the sisters? Slipping into his parental/Watcher mode, he began to grill them.

"Wait just one moment here!" Giles interjected. "Go after Spike _again_...Dawn shouldn't see him _anymore_? Just what have you two been keeping from me? Buffy, as your Watcher, I need to be informed of all major happenings in your life, especially when they involve things of an undead nature. Now please do inform me...just what is going on between the Summers sisters and our reluctant ally Spike?"

Buffy suddenly found the floor very interesting. Not being able to meet Giles's eyes, she said quietly, "It's not a big deal or anything. I, um, sorta tried to seduce Spike to prove to Dawn that he is nothing but an uncaring, soulless demon who'd go after anything in a skirt. It…um…didn't go so well."

Grief and anger warred across Giles's face. He had never dreamed that Buffy would stoop to demeaning herself in such a manner.

"Buffy, you should be _ashamed_ of yourself!" he admonished. "While I admit, we need to protect Dawn at all costs, there was no need to whore yourself out to a vampire merely to squelch a schoolgirl's crush. That was unnecessarily cruel and entirely shallow on your part. Just think of the feelings you've harmed. What were you thinking?"

"Taking this a bit personally, aren't we Giles?" Buffy spat out, shame quickly turning to anger at his attack. "Whore myself out to a vampire?' Is that what you think of me? For your information, I did _not_ sleep with Spike. I do not have _feelings_ for Spike. Let's get that straight right now. How could you think I'd stoop that low?"

Giles was about to lay into Buffy again when Dawn interrupted. "Stop! Would you two just stop?" she yelled. "This isn't helping _anything_. If you two could stop screaming at each other for just a minute, maybe we could focus on the issue at hand...like what happened to me last night."

"Dawn's right," Buffy said with a reluctant sigh. "Now isn't the time to fight. We need to figure out why Dawn was channeling Spike, and how we stop it."

"I...I was channeling Spike? What exactly do you mean by that?" Dawn said, half-fearing she already knew the answer.

"Dawn, last night you went nuts. First point on the creep scale...you were talking like him. Had the British accent down pat. Then things got even wiggier. You _threw me_ across the room, and I swear your eyes glowed yellow. Unless you've been pumping some sort of demon steroids, this is _not_ normal behavior, Dawnie. I'm scared for you."

"Yes, Dawn. I must agree with Buffy. You behavior last night was quite out of the ordinary. You appear to be fine now, but we have no idea whether you will have a relapse, if you would call it that. Any information you could give us would be of extraordinary help. For example…just what is the nature of your relationship with Spike?"

Dawn turned crimson red, and she too suddenly found the floor to be very interesting. "Um...ah...we're friends," Dawn stuttered. "That's all...honest! Just...good friends."

Buffy narrowed her eyes as she listened to her sister. Getting up from the chair she'd been sitting in, Buffy grabbed her sister's chin and pulled Dawn's eyes up to meet hers. "Are you sleeping with him?" Buffy asked bluntly.

Dawn scrambled away from her sister, and Giles had to put a restraining hand up to keep Buffy at bay. "Buffy! I can't believe you'd ask me that!" Dawn said, trying to muster enough outrage to deflect Buffy's questions.

Giles guided the Slayer back to her seat, giving Dawn a sympathetic look as he sat down again. "Buffy, really. Show some restraint. She's only 14...far too young to be engaged in that sort of activity."

Buffy snorted and her lips curled up in a sneer. "Giles, please tell me that somewhere underneath all that tweed there is a man who still lives in this world. Girls her age...even younger...get pregnant every day. Sex is a real issue here. And just how old were you when you lost _your_ virginity?"

"I hardly think that's relevant," Giles said as he coughed and looked towards the ground.

"I thought so..." Buffy said with a hint of smug self-satisfaction. "So answer me, Dawn. Are you sleeping with the bleached-blond wonder?"

"No!" Dawn exclaimed. "No..." she said again more softly. "I've decided that I'm not ready to have sex yet. You're right…I'm only 14…well, almost 15 actually…but I'm still growing up. As much as I hate to be called a kid, I'm not really an adult yet either. Throw on top of that being some mystical Key, and you have got one complicated life. I don't need to add sleeping with a 126 year old vampire into the mix. As if my life weren't crazy enough as it is."

"Dawn, I d..don't mean to pry, but do you mean to tell me that you've actually _discussed_ this with Spike?" Giles asked, disbelief written across his face.

"Yeah, we talk about stuff. Spike's pretty cool. I can tell him how I feel, and he doesn't put me down or anything." Dawn's face notably brightened just at the mention of Spike. A smile beamed across her face.

Giles noted the almost too happy glow on her face, and a suppressed memory began to twitch in the back of his mind. Something he had tried desperately to forget...something he had experienced long ago, in the wild days of his youth. "Dawn, is it safe to say you and Spike are close..." Giles asked, moving to gently cup the side of her face. "...dare I say, even intimate?" He slowly tilted her head to the side and cautiously moved away the hair that covered her neck.

Buffy gasped as she truly saw the marks on Dawn's neck for the first time. The night Dawn had supposedly been attacked, all she could register was that her sister had been bitten, and that was enough to cloud her mind with rage. She never thought to examine the wounds further, but now that she gave it some consideration, it was obvious that these were not the hurried marks of a fledgling looking for an easy meal...they were marks made with care. No vicious tears ran across her throat. Only two angry, red indentations marred the pale length of Dawn's neck.

"How long have you been letting Spike feed from you?" Giles asked quietly.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Buffy exclaimed, looking back and forth between her sister and Watcher in horror. "This _cannot_ be happening. You did _not_ just tell me that my little sister has been volunteering as vamp chow for that Billy Idol wannabe!" Buffy was livid. She got up from where she'd been sitting and paced furiously around the room. "I'm going to kill him. If he touched you, I'll kill him…and I'll do it slowly so he has time to feel lots and lots of pain before I dust his pasty ass!"

"Buffy...Buffy!" Dawn shouted. "Calm down...please! Let...let me explain. You don't understand. I asked him to do it...I _wanted_ him to!" Dawn was frantic, and tears were streaming down her face.

"Buffy, do sit down!" Giles snapped as he grabbed Buffy by the shoulders and firmly pushed her down into a wooden chair nearby. "You must remain calm. Now is not the time to let your anger control you. We have to hear Dawn out...her life may depend upon it."

The moment Giles mentioned a threat to Dawn's life, a blanket of icy control slid over Buffy. Anger still rolled off of her in waves, but she kept it contained, barely hidden under the surface. "Fine," Buffy said in a steely tone.

Dawn was curled up in a ball on Giles's sofa. She had let her hair fall to cover the mark on her neck again. "I won't let you hurt him," she whispered.

Giles stroked the frightened girl's head, calming her with soothing words. "Dawn, I may not be...fond...of Spike, but at this moment I have no desire to see him come to harm. I fear that you two may have formed a unique sort of bond, and to hurt Spike would be equivalent to hurting you…in far more than an emotional sense. I care for you greatly, Dawn. You are like a daughter to me, so if hurting Spike in any way endangers you, I will gladly see him live to a ripe old age."

"So you won't kill him?" Dawn asked hopefully.

"No, we won't," Giles said with a pointed look at Buffy. "But I am a bit concerned. From what I know, such a bond can only be formed in blood. An intimate embrace...a lover's kiss. It wouldn't take much..." Giles left the statement open, silently asking if Dawn had indeed done what he feared.

"I...I didn't realize what was happening until it was too late," Dawn murmured, trying her best to avoid eye contact with anyone in the room. "Spike...he was so gentle with me. Kissing me and touching me...he made me feel so special. When I found out what…what I really am, all I wanted to do was die. Cuz if you can die, that means you're really alive, right?" Dawn said with a strangled sob. "But Spike…he didn't care that I wasn't all together real. He stopped me from hurting myself and made me want to go on living. So I...I wanted to give him something. I heard vampires have a thing for pain. I mean, every time Buffy beat up on Spike, he got a happy... "

Buffy cringed at this little tidbit of information, but Dawn continued on, "...so I bit him. I bit him hard enough to split his lip, and my lip got cut on his fangs. Our blood mixed together in our mouths. I thought it would be disgusting…I mean, blood…eww…but it was _amazing_ Giles. For a second, I could see into him, and through him, all the way back his bloodline, and he could see me too. I know you are going to tell me it was wrong, but I wouldn't take it back. Not for the world." Dawn finally looked up and stared at him defiantly, just waiting for an excuse to run out of the house and into Spike's arms.

From her seat, Buffy fumed. She had a million things she wanted to scream at Dawn, but she held her tongue, just biding her time until she could lecture Dawn on every single reason why it was _not_ ok to get involved with a vampire…Buffy was the poster child for that particular problem, after all.

For a moment, Giles was silent. He pinched the bridge of his nose again, and a sigh escaped him. "Dear Lord, it's worse than I had imagined," he said tiredly. "To feel that sort of connection, your bond must be very deep, founded in the strongest of emotions."

"I love him...I really do. Not in the oh I just love Justin Timberlake from N'Sync' sort of way. I mean love, love." Dawn clutched a couch pillow to her chest, stunned by the confession she had just made.

"I don't doubt the sincerity of your feelings, my dear, but I don't think you realize the gravity of the situation you are in. You are deeply bound to Spike. It is a feeling unlike any other…but it carries with it grave consequences." Giles paused a moment and took a deep breath before continuing.

"I am loathe to admit this, but once, long ago, I too was in a similar situation. I carelessly bound myself to a vampire, more out of defiance to my father than any real sort of affection, so the bond was shallow at best…which is likely the only reason I am even alive to tell this tale. When she was slain, killed by the Slayer…the pain was unbearable…as if my body too longed to explode into ash. I remember screaming…and screaming and screaming until my throat bled. When I finally lost consciousness, I slipped into a coma that lasted an entire week, and once I finally awoke, I was still in emotional torment for months afterwards. Even now…years later…I feel a physical pain in my chest just thinking about it. It's as though a part of me died, yet I barely even cared for her. If something should happen to Spike, the consequences to you would be far more severe. The physical ramifications alone could cripple you, and the emotional pain would be unimaginable. It is unlikely you would be able to survive. And the closer you become to Spike, the deeper your bond will become. Are you willing to take that risk, all for the love of somebody who professes himself to be evil?"

For a long moment, there was nothing but silence in the room as everyone fought to digest the startling information Giles had just divulged. Finally, Dawn broke the silence, speaking softly, as if she were afraid that raising her voice would wound Giles after he had bared part of his soul in such a way.

"You don't understand, Giles. I am not a normal teenager. I have something inside of me that _gods_ are fighting over. You threaten me with the potential of death if I stay with Spike, but I may not even live past Glory. Why should I give up what may be my _one_ chance at love before I am killed, just because I _might_ get hurt. I'm sorry, but I can't do that."

Dawn leaned against Giles, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, tucking her head under his chin as they sat in silence, both thinking on what had been said. Buffy, tired of being ignored and much less sensitive to the levels of vulnerability in the room, shattered the tender moment with another tirade.

"I can't believe I am hearing this!" she exclaimed. "_You_," she said, pointing accusingly at Giles, "you claim you love her...that you love me, yet you almost seem to _approve_ of this relationship. There are no bursts of outrage. There is no oh-so-British stuttering at the 'impropriety of it all.' All you can think to say is 'be careful, you might get hurt.' And Dawn, what were you _thinking_? Letting a vampire feed on you! Has everyone but me totally lost their mind?"

"You dated Angel...now I'm dating Spike. I don't see the problem here," Dawn said, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly.

"Dating? Now you're dating him? That's it! I can't take any more of this. I may not be able to stake Spike, but I sure as hell can use him as a punching bag." That said, Buffy stormed out the door of Giles's house.

Giles chased after her, begging for her to stop, but it was no use. She easily outdistanced him, and he was forced to return to his home, panting and out of breath. Dawn threw her arms around his waist and began to cry as they both stared out the door, wondering what the consequences of Buffy's rash behavior would be.

At the crypt, Spike was groggily beginning to awake from his slumber. In his head, visions of a blonde ball of anger beating the bloody snot out of him were playing ping pong inside his skull. The words "Be careful, Spike. Buffy's coming," echoed through his mind. With a sigh, he got up, groaning at yet again being awakened while the sun was still high in the sky.

"Guess the Slayer's in the know about all me and her kid sis have been up to," he grumbled. Outside he could hear somebody approaching.

"Master, what is wrong? Do you require assistance?" the Buffybot asked.

"You be quiet now, ya hear? I can't have the Slayer gettin' into even more of a snit once she gets an eyeful of you. Go hide," Spike said, making shooing motions with his hands. "Don't come out unless you hear me screamin' in pain or the like."

"That will make you happy?" she asked.

"Yes!" Spike hissed.

"Your wish is my command," she replied in a chipper tone, flipping her hair to the side as she turned to go to the lower level of the crypt.

Just as the Buffybot disappeared from sight, the real Buffy stormed into the crypt. Careful to avoid the sunlight now streaming into the crypt, Spike crept silently behind her and smashed a large chunk of rock against her head. Buffy crumpled to the ground, unconscious, as Spike stood above her menacingly.

"Oh, this has been a long time comin', Slayer," Spike sneered as he began to drag the unconscious form of the Slayer across the floor.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:** I personally like this chapter quite a lot. Spike's finally de-chipped, so the Big Bad gets to come out and play a bit. I hope I was able to make him seem believable. Let me know what you think...as always, reviews and constructive criticism are deeply appreciated!

* * *

Dawn tightened her arms around the Watcher's waist. "Giles, what are we going to do?" she asked quietly. "What if Buffy really hurts Spike? What's that going to do to me? And...and what about today? Mom is supposed to go to the hospital today. She'll be devastated if Buffy isn't there for her. And...and..." Dawn was getting frantic, so Giles placed a fingertip over her lips, gently silencing her before her mind could come up with any more things that could go wrong with the day.

"Hush, dear," Giles said with a sad smile. "We will figure something out, but standing here fretting about everything that could happen won't get us anywhere. First off, I think we need to devise a way of protecting you from your link with Spike."

"Protect me? But I don't want to break the link!" Dawn exclaimed, worry creeping into her voice.

"You misunderstand me. I didn't suggest that we _break_ the link, merely give you some protection from it. It is a potentially powerful weapon, but like any weapon, one must learn to master it, to control it, else it becomes deadly." Giles stared at Dawn meaningfully, letting his words sink in. She became calm, listening with rapt attention.

"Right now, the bond between you and Spike is very strong, so strong in fact, that there are times where it is difficult for you to distinguish where he leaves off and you begin. This is a dangerous place for you to be. You are unaccustomed to the strong urges of a demon and are in no place to combat them. As things are, you have become a danger to yourself and those around you..."

Giles looked like he was about to continue when Dawn cut in. "Ok, Giles...I think I get it. As, um, interesting as your lectures are, do you think we could move on to the how to fix it part?"

"Oh, yes. Quite right." Giles took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes, trying to focus before he continued. "What I propose is that we teach you to center yourself. You must be able to find the calm within and have a place that is solely and completely you in the depths of your mind. In that place, you will be safe from any outside intrusions, and from it, you can observe the link between you and Spike and call upon it at will, rather than being consumed by it. Now is the perfect time for this, as it is day, and Spike is most likely still asleep. There is less chance of him interfering if he is unconscious, although knowing Spike, I wouldn't rule out the possibility," Giles said with a wry grin.

"Wow," Dawn said in surprise. "That sounds like some wacky Zen stuff there."

"Not quite Zen, as you call it," Giles said with a slight smile, "but it is an advanced form of meditation. Usually I would never even attempt to teach this to a novice. There is always the possibility with mediation at this level that you could get lost inside your own mind, trapped in the walls you have constructed, and be unable to regain consciousness. But I believe the circumstances merit such drastic measures."

Dawn gasped as she felt a surge of anger race through her. "Um, Giles, we may have a problem...Spike's awake, and he's not happy. I think Buffy might be with him," Dawn said nervously.

"Oh, dear! Then we must hurry. Despite what you may be feeling, you must do your best to remain calm. If you cannot control your emotions, this will never work."

Dawn sat up straight and tried to look brave. "Ok, then. Let's get started."

Giles rummaged through his things. After a moment, he pulled out a large, translucent crystal and placed it in front of Dawn. "Let's begin," he said gravely.

* * *

Spike was about to give Buffy's unconscious form a sharp kick to the ribs for good measure when he suddenly felt something change inside of him. A bubbly, bright presence that had been there since the moment he had claimed Dawn seemed to withdraw slightly from him, as if a shimmery curtain now separated him from his tiny bit of internal light. As he concentrated, the curtain got slightly thicker, and the light even more distant. He knew that if he wanted, he could tear through the barrier in a heartbeat, but he shrugged it off. "If the little bit wants some distance, fine by me. Probably's for the best. Don't need her getting some third eye sort of vision of me working over her big sis."

"Isn't that right, Slayer?" he asked as he gave Buffy's body a kick.

"Aw hell, never pegged you for the quiet type," Spike laughed as he flung her over his shoulder and took her to the lower level of the crypt. After chaining her to the wall, he moved to rouse the Buffybot.

"C'mon now, clap on, or whatever the hell you have to say. Wake up you stupid piece of tin!"

The Buffybot's eyes snapped open and a bright smile mechanically appeared on her face. "Good morning, Spike!" she said cheerfully.

"Get up," he said gruffly. "I have need of your services."

"Oooh, your presence sends chills down my spine and fear to my heart. Shall I run and scream before you chase me down and ravage me?" she asked, her eyes wide and willing.

"Not _those_ kind of services, you mechanical twit. I'm gonna teach you a new game. Real simple. You see that girl chained up there? That's the real you. Go lie in that coffin across from her and pretend you're dead. And here..." Spike bit into his fingertip and

smeared some blood and dirt on her head where he had hit the real Buffy. "...that's to make it look a bit more real."

"I don't know if I understand this game, Spike," the Buffybot said with a forlorn voice. This was not the sort of game her Creator had taught her.

"Let's just call it a new type of screwing. You can understand that now, can't you? This is just screwing of the mental sort," he said with a malicious grin.

"Ok!" the Buffybot exclaimed happily as she bounced over to the coffin and lay down.

"Buffy!" Spike said in an exasperated tone of voice.

"Yes, Spike?"

"Put your legs together, now there's a girl," he said impatiently.

Finally the Buffybot was in position. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and a peaceful look was on her face. If it weren't for the blood congealing on her forehead, she would look like she was asleep. Not wanting to risk any more mishaps, Spike said evenly, "Your new wake command is get up you stupid bint'... Nothing else, ya hear?"

"Get up you stupid bint...yes, I understand Spike," the Buffybot said cheerfully, unaware of the insult within the command. That done, Spike ordered the robot to bed. "Buffy, sleep mode," he said quietly. A slight whoosh of air escaped the robot's lips as she became truly still.

Just then, the real Buffy began to stir. Spike quickly took his position kneeling next to the coffin and crying as if in mourning. He pretended not to notice as Buffy moaned softly and slowly opened her eyes. Dried blood covered her face and a deep gash ran across the top of her forehead and into her hairline. "Spike..." she attempted to growl, but it came out more like a weak cry for help.

Spike yelped and lept back in mock fear, turning wildly as if to look for the source of the sound. "Who's there!" he shouted at random into the room. "I won't let you touch her!"

Confusion flitted across Buffy's face as she watched Spike prowl back and forth across the room, searching for a nonexistent intruder. He stormed past her without so much as a glance in her direction, as if he couldn't see her standing there, chained to the wall.

"Spike!" she shouted, coughing with the effort. "What's happening..." she cried, Spike's odd behavior and her aching skull causing fear to creep in where normally she would be strong.

Spike whirled around violently at the sound. "Buffy?" he said, hope in his voice, as he ran over to the coffin. He cradled the limp form inside and began to stroke her hair. "Buffy, oh God, Buffy...I knew you couldn't be dead. I knew it! C'mon, there's a luv. Wake up. Wake up!" he screamed as he began to shake her violently. The Buffybot continued to lie as still as before.

"Wake up..." Spike wailed one final time before gently setting her body back down into its original position. "Bloody hell," he growled, running his fingers through his hair, "now I'm hearing things!"

Buffy strained against her chains as she called out, "Spike! Spike! You have to hear me! I'm right here...why can't you hear me?"

Spike roared as he pushed himself away from the coffin. "GO AWAY!" he shouted as he spun in a circle, pretending to search for the source of the sound. He kept shouting as he kicked and punched various objects in the room. Finally, he came to where the real Buffy was chained up. Still acting as if he didn't see her, he slammed his two fists into the wall on either side of her head, mere inches from her hair. "Why the fuck won't you leave me alone? Even in death you haunt me, Summers," he moaned, leaning against his arms, but being careful not to touch her.

"Spike, I'm here!" Buffy said, still hoping he would see her.

Spike leapt back and narrowed his eyes at the wall. "Yes, Spike! I'm here! I'm really here! Oh, God, please let him see me…"

Spike stared at the wall, then at the coffin, and then at the wall again before taking a tentative step in her direction. "Buffy?" he asked incredulously.

"You can see me? Please tell me you can see me!" Buffy cried.

Spike reached out to touch her, then pulled his hand back sharply, hissing as if he'd been burnt. "Hell, Slayer, I can see you. I can bloody well see _through_ you too!"

"But that...that's impossible!"

"Well, luv, how's this for impossible," Spike said gently. "Here I am, talking to you over here, when right over there lies your body, all stiff and cold. I hate to break the news to you, but I think you're a ghost."

"This can't be happening...this _can't_ be happening! If I'm a ghost, why does my head hurt so much? Huh?" Buffy looked at him accusingly, as if she had just proved her entire point.

"Well, here's how I see it. You took quite a bump to the head, got your skull all bashed to pieces. That's what did you in... but since you've convinced yourself you're still alive, you've left yourself with all the physical symptoms you should wake up with after a nasty turn like that. That's why you've still got blood all over ya too. Look at your corpse. Tried to clean her up, I did. Didn't have the best of clothes to put on her, but I wanted her looking a little less bloody for when your friends come round. Won't do for them to see you a crumpled, bloody mess. So I fixed you up, nice and neat as I could." As he said this, tears started to stream down his face.

"Hell, Slayer. Why'd you have to go and die? It's not easy ya know? Bandaging up the dead body of someone ya used to love. You were so strong...so beautiful. Why did you have to go and die!" As he said this, he began to drift back towards the coffin and the still form of the Buffybot.

"Spike, no! Don't leave me!" She strained against her chains again, trying to reach out to him. "Why can't I move?" she exclaimed.

Spike turned back to her, sadness etched on his face. He moved to cup her face, his hand hovering mere millimeters above the surface of her skin before pulling back. "I think it's a spiritual metaphor, or some such rot. You've literally chained yourself to this earth because you feel you still have things to accomplish. I'm afraid I can't help you there. Only you can set yourself free from this prison."

Spike stiffened for a second before sitting down and staring at the ground, his head in his hands. "I don't know what to do here, Slayer. I really don't," he said, false remorse tingeing his words. Buffy let out a strangled cry and slumped against the wall, tears streaming down her face.

* * *

Dawn stared at the prison of her own making. All around her was light. Gleaming, white light. This was who she was. No memories from the monks. No influences from her friends, family or the world around her. No Spike. This light was her essence.

She took a few steps forward and held her hand out. The light gave way slightly to show a wall. She could see it all around her. A sphere that glittered, diamond strong. Taking a deep breath, she allowed a door to form in front of her. Through it she could see the link between her and Spike. It no longer glowed reddish-pink as it had when she first began. There were now two distinct sections, pure white and blood red twined around each other...her and Spike, two _separate_ entities.

Tentatively, she moved along the glowing beam, allowing her mind to reach into the blood-like light without letting it consume her. Dawn stepped forward, her eyes closed, and red light bathed her, like a supernatural dark room. When she opened her eyes again, she could see into Spike's crypt. Tears were on her face...no _his_ face, but inside his head, laughter continuously rang out, loud and clear. Dawn watched the show for a bit, becoming more and more confused by the minute.

Dawn gasped as two rough hands reached out and grabbed her. Spike was no longer talking to Buffy. He sat on the ground, his head in his hands, so the Slayer wouldn't notice his distraction. Mentally he grasped Dawn in an iron grip. "Enjoying the show, little bit?" he growled, the menacing sound sending chills down Dawn's spine.

"Spike, you're hurting me!" Dawn cried. Immediately, Spike's grip loosened and he winced as if in pain.

"Sorry bout that, luv. Just meant to startle ya. This poking around inside each other's brains takes some gettin' used to."

Dawn backed away, frightened by what she was seeing in Spike. Something seemed off...different somehow. "I...I have to go Spike. Don't leave, I'll be over soon." Dawn retreated into her diamond dome. She could feel Spike following her as she tried to close the door she had opened.

"Dawn, wait!" Spike yelled, reaching through the door to Dawn's inner mind.

Again, Dawn found two hands gripping her shoulders. "Dawn...Dawn! Come back to me," Giles said urgently as he shook her lightly.

He sighed in relief as her eyes lost that glazed look and focused on him. "I thought I had lost you there for a moment. What happened?"

"I...I did what we've been practicing. I formed a room inside my head where only I existed, with nothing from the outside world. But this time I went further. Once I felt pretty secure, I explored a little. I poked inside of Spike's head, and I was ok for a while.

Then he noticed me. He…he tried to hold me there."

"I'm guessing that was his instinct for self-preservation taking effect. It's not every day that one has an outside presence invading one's mind. He probably wanted answers. Wh…what did you see while you were there?"

"I don't know really," Dawn said slowly. "It was all muddled. I think Spike was fantasizing or something. Buffy was there, but she kept changing. Sometimes she was in a coffin, wearing really tacky clothes for some reason, and other times she was chained to the wall, blood caked all over her face. It couldn't have been real. Spike can't even defend himself, let alone hurt her. Giles...I'm scared. What if Buffy hurt Spike, and that's why he didn't want me to leave? M…maybe he needed to tell me something, and I just ran off. He could be in his crypt, bleeding and hurt. He could be dreaming about hurting Buffy because he can't fight back against her! We have to go help him!" Dawn was getting frantic, and she began to tug on Giles's arm, motioning for him to get his car keys.

"Dawn, you must calm down. As difficult as it may seem right now, we need to think logically. When you let yourself into Spike's mind, did you feel any pain? Think closely on that...did you feel pain of any sort?" Giles stared at her intently, and realization flashed in her eyes.

"No, I guess I didn't," she said softly. "I was scared when he grabbed me, but I didn't feel pain coming from him."

"Then it is safe to assume that Spike isn't in any sort of physical discomfort, agreed?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Dawn said, visibly relieved.

"Right, then. While I shudder to think about the implications this has on the frequency of Spike's daydreams about Buffy's death, I don't believe what you saw is the result of Spike mentally seeking revenge on Buffy. I do agree that it would be prudent to go to Spike's crypt and see what has occurred, but hopefully we can go with a bit more of a rational mindset now. I'd hate to think all these lessons about centering oneself have gone for naught."

"Yeah, yeah. I get the point. But we have to hurry...Mom's supposed to go to the hospital today at four o'clock and it's already one. We have to find Buffy and get her home so Mom won't be all alone at the hospital."

"Let's go then, shall we?" Giles said as he opened the door for Dawn.

"Yup, let's" Dawn replied, hurrying out the door.

Giles sped all the way to the cemetery, and the two raced towards Spike's crypt, getting several strange looks from people visiting the graves of their dearly departed. Once inside, Spike was nowhere to be seen. Dawn glanced around quickly and then exclaimed, "Over here, Giles! I think there's another level!"

After climbing down the ladder, Dawn gasped at the sight before here. It was the coffin from Spike's dream, but it was surrounded by candles, casting deep shadows on everything around it. She didn't bother to wait for Giles to finish descending before she rushed over to the coffin. Inside, Buffy was laid out, still as death. Dawn reached out to touch her and shrieked as she felt the cold skin beneath her fingers.

From the wall came a slight sob. Buffy, resigned to being dead, didn't even call out to her sister. She just cried in misery, her willingness to fight drained for the moment. Dawn looked up in surprise. Giles appeared behind her and placed his hands protectively on her shoulders, his brow knitted in confusion.

Dawn reached out slightly with her mind, and then turned to the smirking figure leaning against the wall in shadows.

"Spike, why are there two Buffies?" Dawn asked, her eyes narrowing.


	13. Chapter 13

"Why are there two Buffies?" Dawn asked suspiciously.

Buffy's head snapped up as hope filled her eyes. "You can see me?" she asked excitedly.

"Of course I can see you, Buffy! What's going on?" Dawn asked.

"I'm a ghost," Buffy replied dejectedly, her confusion making her tone seem almost child-like.

Giles stepped towards Buffy and gently pushed her hair out of her face. Her eyes opened wide when his hand actually made contact, and she sagged slightly in relief. "Buffy, I can assure you, you are most definitely not a ghost. But you are in serious need of some medical attention. I'm afraid you've had quite a bump to the head."

"Is that why everything is so blurry?" she asked dreamily.

"Yes, I'm afraid it is," Giles said softly, his gentle tone a quiet cover for the anger building inside of him. "You must tell me though, however did you get the idea that you are a ghost?"

"Well," Buffy said slowly, "I remember coming to the crypt, ready to show Spike a whole new meaning of the word pain, when suddenly everything went black. I woke up, and...I could see my corpse lying there. Spike was actually grieving, which was…strange. I started screaming at him, and he didn't even notice. When he finally saw me, he told me I had died. But maybe it's not too late! If I'm still here, can't you like, magic me back into my body?"

"Buffy, you must believe me when I say you are very much alive," Giles said patiently. "Dear," he muttered more to himself than to anyone else, "you must have hit your head rather hard to actually believe a word that came out of Spike's mouth."

Spike's head turned sharply to look at Giles in silent protest as he continued to inch his way towards retreat. While Buffy and Giles had been speaking, Spike had been slowly edging his way towards the door. Dawn was standing in shocked silence, but she snapped to attention when she noticed Spike trying to leave.

"Stop right there, mister!" Dawn yelled, stomping over to Spike and grabbing the front of his shirt.

Even though he could easily outmatch her, Spike allowed her to drag him over to where Buffy was chained up…wouldn't do to let everyone know he wasn't a chained dog anymore…not yet anyway. And despite his rediscovered loathing for Buffy, he still wasn't quite ready to cut all ties with the bloody Slayer and her band of do-gooders. There was Dawn to consider, after all. Women always make everything more complicated.

"First, you are going to give Giles the keys to unlock my sister," Dawn said sternly, her voice tense with anger. "Then you are going to tell me _exactly_ what is going on here, starting with what happened to Buffy, and why there is a corpse that looks like her in that coffin."

Spike gave Dawn a sexy grin and slowly dug into the pockets of his tight, black jeans to produce a large, iron key for the shackles. Normally a heated look and a few provocative moves were enough to addle her brain, but she was having none of it today. Shifting uncomfortably under Dawn's very unamused look, he began his version of the story. "Um, well...yeah. You see...the Slayer, she came in here with this bright idea that she was gonna work me over real good, but somehow you ESPed a message into my head. Warning bells went off, so to speak, and I was all ready to relocate myself, like some pansy-assed poof of a vampire who can't even defend himself properly. Damn shame it is too, let me tell you..."

"Spike!" was the curt reply from a very impatient Giles. "Do get on with it!"

"Oh, bugger off!" Spike angrily replied.

The two Englishmen glared at each other and Dawn pointedly coughed and raised her eyebrow. This was enough to quiet both of them, and Spike continued his story.

"Anyway...blondie here stormed in before I could make myself scarce. Thing is, when she got here she was in such a righteous rage, that she set the door flying back into the wall. Caused a small cave-in, it did. These crypts aren't the sturdiest of homes. What with the rate of people dying in this God forsaken hell-hole, they have to go up mighty fast, I'd gather. She huffed and she puffed, and down came part of my roof. Can check for yourself if you like. The stones came down and knocked her right out."

"Spike, this does not explain how Buffy came to be _chained to a wall_, the belief that she is dead firmly implanted in her mind. Do tell...how do you justify playing with the mind of a woman you claimed to have loved?"

"C'mon now, Watcher. Think for a moment. This woman spurned my love...rejected me at every turn. Now what do you expect me to do? Chip or no chip, a vampire's got to have some self-respect. Here I am, the Slayer all bleedin' and unconscious at my feet. Can't kill her. Oh no, we can't have that. But here is my enemy, the bane of my existence, the blonde terror who has humiliated me more than any other. You expect me to just bandage her up nice and neat and kiss it better? Hell no! I've had my fill of trying to get into her good graces. Not this vampire...never again. So, I did what I could in this situation. I had myself a spot of fun. I guess those government gits didn't wire me for mental anguish when they worked me over, so I took my chance to play around a bit. I convinced our dear Buffy that she had joined the ranks of the dearly departed. Gave her just a fraction of the pain she caused me, I'll tell you that." Spike sneered down at the semi-conscious form of Buffy, now unchained and cradled in Giles's arms on the floor of the crypt.

"But Spike," Dawn interjected, "that still doesn't explain the body in the coffin."

"Oh, right. That." Spike kicked the coffin and grumbled, "Wake up you stupid bint." The Buffybot sat bolt upright and looked around the room as everyone except Spike gasped in shock. She saw Dawn and a mannequin-like smile lit up her face.

"I'm Buffy," she said brightly. "You're Dawn, my sister."

Spike grimaced slightly and continued. "What you see there is a marvel of modern technology. Now, as we are all painfully aware, I was rather besotted with the damn Slayer for a short while. Embarrassing tidbit of info I'd like to keep quiet, by the way. But, in my love-sick state, I ran across a maker of androids. Ordered myself a replica of Buffy. Figured if I couldn't have her, I could at least have something."

"Oh. My. God. You bought a sexbot. That's just...gross!" Dawn shivered in disgust as she looked at the mechanical monstrosity that bore an uncanny likeness to her sister.

The Buffybot took the insult with a smile plastered on her face. Seeing that Dawn was upset, she tried to explain her purpose. "Dawn, my sister, I am not just for sex anymore. At first that was all Spike wanted. He had me specially programmed just for that purpose. But he was displeased, so I was given extra programming. I can make him happy in lots of ways now." She smiled again, certain that she had fixed everything.

"You slept with that...that _thing_?" Dawn asked, furious and hurt at the same time.

Spike stepped towards her, his hands up in defense. "Now pet, you have to let me explain..."

"Spike, you have really outdone yourself. I didn't think you had it in you, but you have the mental torture thing down to an art. You must be so proud. The Slayer and her sister in one fell swoop." Dawn glared at him, and then purposely spat out, "You are _just_ like Angelus."

Spike recoiled as if he'd been slapped. His whole life he had tried to get out from Angelus' shadow, to be anything except like his sire, and Dawn knew it. Dejectedly, he said, "Now that's hitting below the belt, luv."

Dawn felt a pang of guilt run through her. She had purposefully distanced herself mentally from Spike, but the hurt on his face still stung her heart, no matter how much he deserved it. It wasn't like her to used privileged information to lash out at the people she cared for. She was just starting to consider taking back her words when the Buffybot tried to come to the rescue.

"Dawn, you can't be angry with Spike. Spike loves you. He wouldn't have sex with me until I pretended to be you. I used your voice to please him. You are what makes him happy." The Buffybot tried to give Dawn a hug, and she sprung back in horror.

"Bloody hell!" Spike exclaimed, running his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Buffy, sleep mode," he said quickly, trying to keep her from causing any more damage.

The Buffybot collapsed to the ground, and Dawn stood above her death-like form in shock. "I can't even _begin_ to describe how low you are Spike," Dawn said in an icy voice, her weak moment of compassion for him forgotten in the wake of the latest addition to the long list of things she was furious with him about.

"I trusted you." She showed him the marks on her arm and on her neck. "I opened a _vein_ for you! I gave you as much of myself as I could possibly give, but NO, that wasn't enough. I wouldn't sleep with you, so you went and fucked some robot because you couldn't keep it in your pants long enough to wait until I was ready. You have ETERNITY, and you couldn't wait. But I guess you got what you wanted. Best of both worlds, right? A robot that looks like Buffy, but can sound like me. I hope you have what you want, because you will _never_ have me. I hate you!" she screamed, tears rolling down her face.

Spike paced back and forth, anger and regret warring inside of him. "Would you just listen to me for one BLOODY second?" he shouted. "This thing," he said, kicking the robot at his feet, "was a mistake... just a way to shag the Slayer. Virtual Buffy, all pliable and willing. But I wanted her before I knew you. I have something better now, so I had her reprogrammed...FOR YOU! She was supposed to be a soddin' _present_ for you and your mum. Someone to look out for Joyce when you lot couldn't be around. Underneath the cheerleader smile, she's got the wiring of a nurse. Didn't know that stupid git who built her didn't erase the original programming. So now I've got this robot whose only goal is to make me happy. She sees that YOU are what makes me happy, so she tries to give me you. And I was weak...I let her. But don't you see...I want _you_, not some robotic imitation."

"Wake it up, Spike," Dawn said calmly.

"What! Why the hell would I do that? She's caused nothin' but trouble."

"Wake that thing up. What I have to say, I want you both to hear."

Spike kicked the robot again and muttered, "Wake up you stupid bint."

"Hi!" the Buffybot said in a chipper tone of voice, looking up at Dawn with wide, innocent eyes.

"Listen up, whatever you are," Dawn said, addressing the Buffybot. "You can have him. Make him happy however you want. He no longer concerns me." The Buffybot looked up at her, a confused look appearing on her mechanical face.

"Spike, you can take you and your 'present' and go to hell. I want nothing to do with either of you." Dawn felt compelled to add one final blow, and tell him he was beneath her, something she knew would hurt him to the core, but she didn't have it in her to be that cruel. Instead, she purposefully turned her back on Spike, acting as if he were no threat and beneath her concern. With an effort, she kept the tears from flowing as she walked towards Giles.

"C'mon...let's get out of here," Dawn said matter-of-factly. "Buffy needs a doctor and mom's probably already at the hospital, it's so late. We have to hurry though. I'm guessing the sun is either about to set or already down. I don't think I can handle any more vampires today."

Giles saw the pain etched across Dawn's face and he rose to embrace her. "I am so sorry, my dear."

A wobbly Buffy staggered to her feet and leaned against the wall. "I don't feel so good, guys."

Giles gave Dawn a final squeeze before rushing to Buffy's side. "We're leaving...can you walk?"

"Yeah, I'll manage," Buffy said, trying to gather her strength. After taking a step and nearly falling, she added, "Well, maybe a little help wouldn't hurt."

Giles helped support Buffy as they walked to the entranceway to the upper level. Dawn moved to follow, and Spike stepped in front of her, blocking her path. "You can't just leave, Dawn," Spike said in a pleading voice. "We're connected, you and I. That just doesn't go away...that will _never_ go away. You are mine and I am yours, whether you like it or not!"

"Goodbye, Spike" Dawn said coldly, brushing past him.

Spike stood for a minute in stunned silence, half hoping that Dawn would come back. He knew he had run a risk messing with her sister like that, but he thought she was so love-struck with him that she would understand. Maybe she would have too, if she hadn't found out about his other…indiscretions. After it became painfully obvious that Dawn wasn't going to turn around and rush back into his arms, he moved to follow the group out of the crypt, the Buffybot trailing blithely behind him like a loyal puppy. Spike raced outside and watched Dawn's retreating form as she and Giles rushed to get Buffy to the car before any vampires began to rise for the evening.

Spike followed at a distance, making sure nothing attacked them on their way through the cemetery, before finally letting Dawn go. When he got back to the crypt, his robot was waiting outside for him. Without a second thought, he decided to take his pent-up frustration out on the Buffybot. His fists clenched as he turned to glare at her. "Fine mess you've gotten me into," he growled as he shook her roughly and then slapped her across the face.

The Buffybot crumpled to the ground. "You are displeased," she cried in a despondent voice, oily tears leaking out of her eyes (a peculiar, physiological response that was pre-programmed to occur whenever she failed miserably at fulfilling her duties).

"Bloody hell! Figured that one out, did ya? Of _course_ I'm displeased, you worthless chit!"

The Buffybot slowly rose to her feet and walked over to where Spike was pacing, standing in front of him with her head bowed. "I'm sorry, Master" she apologized quietly. "My only desire is to please you...and I'm doing the best I can. My program allows for learning and adaptation, but only if you provide sufficient data. Please tell me…how can I fix this...how can I make you happy?"

Spike looked down at the oil-streaked face of the robot who would do anything for him and actually felt a twinge of guilt. It wasn't her fault things had gotten so royally screwed up. With a groan, he gathered the crying robot into his arms. He rested his chin on her head and sighed, "You know, you might just be the only friend I have left…and the only reason you've stuck around thus far is that you have no choice. Shows you what a sad bloke you've been saddled with. You wanna help though? Delete anything in your program about having sex with me. Never talk about it..._especially_ around Dawn, and never try to have it with me again..._ever_. Understand?"

Spike heard a slight whirring sound coming from inside the Buffybot. When she looked up at him again, the fanatical admiration in her eyes was gone. "I think I understand," she replied. "We are just...friends. I can still make you happy, but it is not my job to copulate with you."

"Oddly put, but yeah, I think you've got it. Go on inside now. I just need some time to clear my head."

From a distance, several pairs of eyes watched the exchange between Spike and the Buffybot. They were too far to hear their conversation, but they noted with glee the way the Slayer seemed to hold this one in high esteem above all others.

"See how patient she is with this one," one of Glory's minions said knowingly. "There is none of her characteristic temper. With all of her other companions she is quarrelsome and mouthy, but she takes his abuse quietly and even moves to comfort him. She must care for him a great deal."

Nods of agreement were shared between the trollish minions. Echoes of "he is the one" rippled through the group. Stealthily, they moved to surround Spike. By the time he snapped out of his reverie and noticed their approach, it was too late. He was already surrounded. Spike fought with a fury, killing several of the creatures, but in the end their numbers overpowered him. Kicking and yelling, Glory's servants dragged Spike along in the direction of Glory's lair.

"Glorificus will be well pleased," the head minion said smugly.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: **To everyone who was worried that Dawn and Spike were done for...I hope this chapter puts your mind at ease. I also hope it seems believable...I'm still not sure I'm happy with the way I had Dawn address her feelings for Spike. Also, I should point out that actual canon makes an appearance in this chapter. A lot of the scene between Spike and Glory comes from the episode Intervention. I've changes some things to fit this story, but it is definitely based on the actual episode.

* * *

Giles paced furiously in the waiting room of the hospital. It was killing him, not knowing exactly what was going on with the _two_ Summers women who were now in the hospital. Angrily, he recommenced his ongoing argument with the nurse at the front desk.

"As I've explained _several times_, Mr. Giles, Buffy is with the doctors. I don't know why it's taking so long for 'just a couple bloody stitches,' as you so eloquently put it. And Mrs. Summers is still unavailable as well. I'm not at liberty to divulge patient information to a non-family member, so if you would kindly take your seat, I will notify you as soon as either of the Summers women is ready to receive a visitor."

The nurse ended her speech with a glare that would have daunted most men, but Giles had become quite accustomed to glares from determined women, and he was not about to back down. "I most certainly will _not_ take a seat," Giles said loudly. "I have been sitting for _hours_. I have put up with this nonsense long enough, and you _will_ take me to Buffy or I will find her myself!"

Giles moved to stride past the nurses' station and into the area where they treated patients. The nurse placed a firm hand on Giles's chest and said evenly, "Sit _down_, Mr. Giles. Do not force me to call security."

Luckily, at that moment Dawn came around the corner carrying two cups of coffee. Seeing the angry look on Giles' face, she quickly set down the steaming beverages and raced over to provide a calming influence on the situation. "C'mon, Giles," she said, taking his hand. "I come bearing caffeine. So why don't we sit down and relax and leave the nice nurse alone. I'm sure she'll let us know about Buffy and my mom as soon as she can. If you leave or get arrested or something, I'll be here all alone, and I just don't think I could take that right now."

Giles looked down at Dawn's pleading face and grudgingly acquiesced. "Very well," he said with a sigh. "I suppose waiting a bit longer will do no harm."

Giles and Dawn had just begun to walk back to their seats when Dawn stopped dead in her tracks, a strange look on her face. At first she just gasped, looking slightly bewildered, then she screamed and fell to the ground, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. Giles quickly knelt next to the writhing girl as she clasped her stomach and moaned in pain. "Dawn," he said urgently, "what is it?"

"I think it's Spike," she said through clenched teeth, giving Giles the answer he had feared. Before he could speak to her anymore, a flurry of nurses and doctors pushed him to the side. He lunged through them and whispered fervently in her ear, "Remember your training, Dawn!" And then it was too late to say any more. He was roughly pushed back and Dawn was lifted to a gurney and carried away.

"Please, let me accompany her!" he pleaded.

Again he came face to face with the nurse who was quickly becoming a bane to his existence. "You know that's not possible, Mr. Giles," she said with an exasperated sigh. "I'm afraid you'll have to just wait out here until the doctors have finished. Perhaps if you had let us know your young friend was injured as well, we could have avoided such a drastic situation."

"Bloody hell!" Giles growled, punching the wall in frustration.

* * *

Spike struggled against his bonds as the lumpy demons dragged him into Glory's lair. She began to look him over as the cowering head minion, Jinx, spoke. "Most splendiferous one, we believe we have brought you..." he looked at his fellow minions and they responded in unison, "...The Key!"

Glory paced around Spike, squeezing him in various places as if she were buying fruit at the market. "Hey, watch the hands lady!" Spike yelped in protest. Glory continued her examination, completely ignoring her victim's discomfort. She leaned in close to his face and sniffed his neck, even giving him a quick lick before grabbing Jinx and throwing him to the ground.

"_He_ can't be the Key, because, see, the Key has to be _pure_. This is a vampire. Lesson number one...vampire equals impure."

"Yeah, damn right I'm impure," Spike retorted. "I'm as impure as the driven yellow snow. So why don't you be a nice goddess and let me go."

Glory ran her hands seductively through Spike's hair. "You can't even brain-suck a vampire," she said, giving his head a rough shove. "He's completely useless."

"But, your holiness," Jinx humbly interjected, "we observed the Slayer. She held this one above all others. She treated him as precious."

Glory perked up, spinning to face Spike. "Really? Precious? Well, let's take a peek at you, precious." Glory looked him up and down, running her finger down the middle of his chest.

"Sod off," Spike growled, flinching at her touch.

"That wasn't very nice," Glory said in a saccharine sweet voice as she punched him in the face, sending him flying across the room. A trickle of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth, and before he could even get his bearings, she was attacking him again. She grabbed him by the front of his jacket and threw him onto her bed. Glory crawled on top of him as he groaned in pain, straddling his waist and letting her hand creep down between his thighs. "Just tell me what you know, and I can make it good for you. You'll die quickly, I promise."

Spike looked at her in horror. "What makes you think I'd even want to touch the likes of a skanky…psychotic…whorish…ex-god like you? You're second rate all the way," Spike said with false bravado, emphasizing each insult, giving them a chance to sink in.

"I don't care what you want!" Glory screamed, punching him in the face again. "I want to be inside you," she whispered into his ear.

A confused look flitted across Spike's face. "I think you've got things a bit backwards."

Glory quickly demonstrated what she meant, taking one finger and thrusting it into Spike's stomach. He arched his back and released a guttural scream. "Shhh. What do you know, precious? What can I dig out of you?" Glory cooed, stroking the side of his face gently as she pushed her finger in deeper.

After listening to him scream for a several minutes, Glory violently pushed herself away from Spike, not caring that she cracked a few of his ribs in the process. With an idle wave of her hand, she motioned to her minions. "String him up, boys."

Rapidly, the minions scurried over to Spike and lifted his body from the bed. They firmly wrapped chains around his wrists and hauled him to the ceiling, hanging him like he was a piece of meat. Glory walked towards him, her high heels clicking on the tile. "Why don't you just make this easy on yourself, sweetie. I haven't even begun to cause you pain."

She punched him in the stomach several times, and once more in the face for good measure. Spike groaned with every hit, but managed to keep his mouth firmly shut. Glory took her finger and began to point back and forth between his eyes. "Eeny, meeny, miney, moe...which eye should I poke out?" she said in a sing-song voice.

"Stupid bint, doesn't even rhyme," Spike coughed out.

"Shut up!" Glory said, offended. "I'm a god, you know. You should be nice to me..." Glory looked as though she was about to start pouting, then she hauled off and punched Spike again.

"Would you look what you did?" Glory screeched, examining her hand. "You got blood all over my nail polish...and I just painted them!" The flaky god took one of her fingers and slowly licked the blood off it. Startled, she held out her hand and looked at her finger in awe. Then she approached Spike and licked his stomach, near where she had punctured it earlier.

"Back off, bitch," Spike said through clenched teeth. "Already said I'm not interested."

"How did you do it?" she yelled, shaking him violently. "Why do you taste like my Key?"

Spike couldn't quite manage a cocky grin through all the swelling, but his tone was arrogant. "I'm a vampire, you see. Corruptin' innocents is a daily affair. You can't expect me to remember them all."

"You fed from her, didn't you? Damnit!" Glory screamed.

"Tell me who she is," Glory pleaded.

Spike noticed a tone of desperation in her voice that hadn't been there before. Something had changed. He didn't know what it was, but for some reason the outcast god seemed to need him now. This tiny tidbit of information was enough to restore Spike's confidence.

He responded to her question with a disdainful air.

"Not bloody likely."

"Damnit! Damnit! Damnit!" Glory yelled in frustration, punctuating each curse with another sharp blow to Spike's abdomen. Finally, she collapsed onto her bed with a sigh. "Get him down from there," she said, motioning to her minions.

"But most holy one, don't you wish to continue pummeling him for information?" Jinx timidly asked.

"No, you idiot. I need him now. He's got some of the Key's blood in him. I need as much blood as I can get. We'll bleed him too, when the time comes. Go tie him up somewhere. If he escapes, you die, k?" That said, Glory flopped back on her bed and stared at the ceiling while her minions scurried to obey her commands.

* * *

Dawn laughed in relief...she laughed so hard that tears were beginning to run down her face. She had done it! Her world had been nothing but pain, and now it was gone...just vanished.

The confused looks on the doctors' faces only made her laugh harder. She couldn't blame them though. When they first brought her back, there were signs of internal bleeding, and bruises populated her body. Now she was already healing. Not as quickly as if she had been a vampire, but more rapidly than any normal human, even the Slayer. One of the few small advantages to being bound to a vampire.

"I just don't understand it," a young intern said to the doctor that was berating him for incompetence. "I know I did the tests right...there's no way we should be getting such drastically different results. It's like she's healing before our very eyes!" The frustrated young man ran his fingers through his hair and paced in annoyance.

"I've had quite enough of your theatrics. You obviously did something wrong," said the doctor contemptuously. "Drastically wounded patients don't just spontaneously heal themselves! I believe this girl merely had a nasty fall, and the blood made it seem worse than it really was. That, coupled with worry over her family, is most likely the source of the pain she seemed to be in…not massive internal injuries that have suddenly vanished. Just look at her...she's hysterical, but not dying."

Dawn calmed herself down until her laughter subsided to soft giggles. _Boy, these doctors sure have denial down to an art_, she thought to herself. _They must have to do this every night, living on the Hellmouth and all._

Dawn sat up and stared at the people around her. They all seemed so intent of finding out 'what went wrong,' i.e., a patient actually getting better without their intervention, that most of them were completely ignoring her. She waited for a slight pause in the noise, before interrupting.

"Excuse me," she said softly. When everyone continued to ignore her, she said "Hello!" a bit more loudly, waving her hand back and forth until she finally caught their attention. "I'm feeling much better now. Is there any chance I could see my mom and my sister?"

"You seem to have been through quite an accident, young lady. You should have told the nurse on duty immediately rather than staying so long in the waiting area with your surly friend. After the way you collapsed, I'm surprised to see you escaped with only a few minor scrapes and bruises. We'd like to observe you for a bit longer to be on the safe side," said the doctor, "but we can put you in the same room as your sister. Your mother is still undergoing some tests, but we'll certainly let you know when she is finished," he said with a placating smile.

They put Dawn in a wheelchair and had the intern take her to the part of the ER where Buffy was resting. Inside the curtained off room, Dawn could hear talking. "Giles!" Dawn exclaimed as they wheeled her in. "What happened?"

"Dawn!" both Giles and Buffy cried in unison.

Dawn raced over and embraced her sister and then Giles, who was sitting in a chair right next to Buffy's bed. Then, realizing the intern was still watching her intently, she swayed a little bit, pretending to be woozy.

The intern pushed the other bed in the room close to Buffy's and gave it a small pat. "Here, why don't you sit down," he said with a small smile. "They're going to want to keep you here overnight, for observation. Pretend that you're still weak, but feeling better, and they should let you go home tomorrow with your sister."

"What do you mean pretend?" Dawn said with wide eyes as she climbed into the bed.

"I'm not as willing to delude myself as most of the people here," he said with a slight tone of bitterness. "Weird stuff happens in this town. Bodies drained of blood coming back to life...'wolf' and 'bear' attacks in a town that hasn't seen that kind of wildlife in half a century or more...patients healing themselves on the table," he concluded, with a knowing look at Dawn. "I might not know what causes it all, but I certainly won't ignore it. Don't worry though, unless you sprout fangs and try to attack me, your secret's safe with me."

He had meant that last statement as a joke, but the sudden silence that filled the room spoke much louder than any words. A chill went down his spine as he realized that none of them were even attempting to deny any of the seemingly impossible things he was suggesting. Instead, they all seemed to be avoiding his gaze, silently begging him not to pry any further. The confirmation that at least some of his assumptions were true was strangely unwelcome. It was almost better to believe he was crazy than to know that there really were supernatural things that went bump in the night. Quickly, he grabbed the wheelchair and muttered a goodbye, leaving them to whatever they had to discuss.

A perceptible sigh went through the group once the intern left the room. "I suppose it's good to know that not all of the residents of Sunnydale are living in complete denial," Giles said, trying to break the tension. "But do tell me Dawn, what happened to give our friend such a burst of insight?"

"No way, mister. I asked you first. What happened while I was gone?" Dawn crossed her arms and gave an attempt at a stern face.

"Yeah, c'mon Mr. Self-Restraint. Why don't you tell Dawn about your fine example of proper waiting room etiquette?" Buffy teased.

Giles looked sheepishly down at his hand, bandaged and splinted, and now resting easily in a sling. "Yes, well, I'm afraid with the entire Summers family now residing in the hospital, I became slightly fed up with waiting. When the ever discourteous staff informed me yet _again_ that I should take a seat, I became a bit...disgruntled."

"I'm a big girl, Giles. You can say 'pissed off,'" Dawn smirked.

Giles glared at her, but he continued his story. "Yes, well, in my angered state, I vented my frustration on the nearest wall, to the consternation of the staff, I'm sure. And the result was this," he said, indicating his bandaged hand.

"Oh cool, Giles punched a wall!" Dawn said gleefully. "And here I thought he was always Mr. Prim and Proper."

"No, not cool," Buffy admonished. "It was stupid, and dangerous. And...well...stupid."

"Yes, Dawn. Buffy is quite correct in this instance. You'd do well not to follow my example. But let's shift the focus off of me for just a moment, shall we? What happened to you?"

Dawn grimaced slightly. "It was Spike..._again_. I think he's in trouble with another ex-girlfriend or something," she said with disdain. "For a second, I felt kinda turned on and mad at the same time. I just don't get guys... Spike definitely did _not_ like this girl, but I could feel him getting…you know…aroused."

"Well, you know for Spike, getting beat up is like third base," Buffy commented. "Anyway, guys are pigs. They get turned on by anyone in a skirt who shows them even the tiniest bit of attention. Spike's almost normal that way."

"Ahem," Giles muttered, looking slightly offended.

"Present company excluded of course," Buffy said as she gave Giles a placating pat on the cheek.

Dawn raised her eyebrows as Giles turned a slight shade of red. "D…do go on, Dawn," Giles stuttered, wanting to keep them from noticing his sudden embarrassment. He wasn't immune to the effect of beautiful women after all…Buffy in particular.

Dawn smiled and continued her story. "Well, this girl must have really hated Spike, because the next thing I knew, it felt like someone was beating me up...I hurt all over, especially my stomach. She must be strong in a not-quite-human way to work him over like that. Then I did the whole Zen thing Giles taught me, and I distanced myself from my link with Spike. It still hurt for a while, but then it suddenly stopped. I think Spike's beating is probably over for now. And I'd say he deserved every second of it if I didn't have to live with the lovely side effects," she added bitterly, her anger with Spike very evident.

"Well I'm glad you're ok," Buffy said, reaching over and giving Dawn's hand a squeeze. "And I'd like to officially welcome you into the world of boy trouble, Hellmouth style."

"Yeah, dating a vampire sure is weird."

"Hold on a sec…" Buffy said slowly. "You said 'dating'…as in present tense. What happened to the whole 'Spike is such a disgusting pig and I hate him for what he did to you' rant you gave me during the drive to the hospital? Shouldn't talk of Spike in the dating sense now be firmly in the _past_ tense?"

Dawn blushed and looked down at her lap. "I'm not sure it's that easy," she said. "I don't want you to think I'm not still angry with him. I'm _furious_ at him for what he did to you…and that freakish android he made is just icing on the Spike's-an-asshole cake. But he was right about one thing…we _are_ bound. I can't just cut him out of my life…he's always going to be there in the back of my mind…_literally_. And I really do have strong feelings for him. I'm not sure if it's fair to call it quits just because things aren't all sunshine and roses right now. Even though I'm _so_ angry with him, I still miss him in the 'I can't live without you' sort of way. If I end this now, I'll spend the rest of my life wondering 'what if.' So I think I owe it to myself to try to work things out…after letting him stew for a while, of course."

"Wow," Buffy said with admiration. "When did you get all grown up and mature?"

"You don't hate me?" Dawn asked nervously.

"No, I don't hate you. I can't say I'm thrilled with your decision, but I don't hate you. And this is really going to surprise you, but I don't hate Spike either. I'd like to pummel him myself for the trick he pulled…but I don't hate him. He's helped us over and over again...he's even saved my life, and more importantly _yours_, on several occasions, and all he wanted, besides blood and cigarettes that is, was a little bit of recognition. I treated him like dirt, and I can admit I was wrong. Well, to you at least…I'd never let him know that to his face…he'd never let me live it down. But anyway, if you really want to work things out with him, I'll do my best to not interfere…too much. Not that I want to be all buddy-buddy with a vampire, but I think a...truce...could be established."

"Do you mean it?" Dawn said hopefully.

"Yeah, I mean it," Buffy smiled. "Anyway, what choice do I have? It's not like I can go beat the crap out of him if every time I hit him it hurts you."

"Thanks, Buffy. That means a lot to me, it really does," Dawn said quietly.

"I'm so proud of you both," Giles said, a fatherly smile on his face. "You are both turning into remarkable young women so quickly, it astounds me."

"Does that mean I finally get to go patrolling," Dawn asked.

"Not in a million years," Buffy laughed.

"Well, can I at least date without fear of my sister staking my boyfriend?"

"I suppose," Buffy said with an exaggerated sigh.

"I wonder where Spike is anyway," Dawn mused.

* * *

Spike groaned in his chair. He almost wished Glory were beating him up again. Anything had to be better than listening to her insane drivel. At least she had been making sense before, trying to pry information out of him. Now she almost seemed to be talking to the voices in her head. The only thing that kept him from provoking her was the laughing presence in the back of his mind. Dawn felt happy and safe. He knew that everything that happened to him affected her strongly. To keep her from any more pain, he gritted his teeth and continued to placidly sit while Glory paced in front of him.

"No, no, no, no, no! You can't do this! Not now...not when I'm finally getting close. My vampire knows something about the Key. Just...just let me have some more time. Ahhh...I need to eat...need...NOOO!" Glory ceased her pacing and held her head as she screamed. Her high-pitched tones deepened into a rich bass as her mortal half came to the forefront.

"Well, would you look at that," Spike said, things suddenly looking a bit brighter.


	15. Chapter 15

Ben looked at the bloody figure chained to the chair in front of him. "Who are you?" he asked nervously.

"I'm Glory's new chew toy," Spike said sarcastically. "Who the hell are you?"

Ben ignored his question and instead began to examine Spike, slowly pacing a circle around the chair. "You get your kinks in a weird way," he said, hoping to divert attention from himself and his sudden appearance.

"This coming from the man in the dress," Spike said, his eyebrow arched. "But hey, I'm a man of the 21st century...if you get your jollies dressing up like a girly, it's no problem of mine. I've known sicker...hell, I was raised by a sicko myself."

"Hey! It wasn't my _choice_ to be dressed like this!"

"Ah, so the evil fairies tied you up and _forced_ you to dress in female attire," Spike replied with false bravado, deciding not to let on that he actually witnessed Glory's transformation. If the boy was none the wiser, he wouldn't be the one to fill him in.

Ben was silent for a moment before ducking his head, pretending to be embarrassed. "It was a fraternity prank, ok? Believe me…I don't enjoy waking up and discovering I'm in a mini skirt and heels."

"Well, how's about this, mate? Untie me, and I'm gone...never a word to anyone. See, this Glory chit, she got a bit mad in the psychotic sense of the word when I didn't feel like playing her games. Tied me up and left me to rot, she did. That one has some anger control issues. As you can see, she roughed me up right proper, and I'm hurting in a major way. Let me go, and we can both crawl off to our respective holes to recuperate."

"Works for me," Ben replied, relieved that Spike didn't seem to remember any connection between him and Glory.

As soon as Ben undid the chains, Spike muttered a quick 'thanks mate' before hurrying out the door as fast as he injured body could carry him. Once outside, he limped off in the direction of the hospital, but eventually he realized the futility of trying to walk the whole way there, especially given that he was still bleeding rather profusely in several areas. Mustering his last bit of strength, Spike stalked down a drunk dressed in leather outside a bar. He followed him to his vehicle, grabbed him from behind, and took a quick drink before robbing him of his motorcycle keys. For some strange reason, he felt compelled to not kill the man. Not having the time to ruminate on the kinder, gentler Spike, he hopped on the bike and sped the whole way to the emergency room.

Once he arrived, Spike abandoned the bike, stormed inside, and strode up to the nurses' station. The nurse's jaw dropped at his fierce look. Summoning her courage, she stood up and said, "Sir, I'm certain you want to see a doctor as quickly as possible, but I'm going to have to ask you to fill out some forms first, unless your situation is life-threatening."

"I could care sod all about your bloody forms, and I'm not about to let some doctor poke around in my innards," Spike spat out. "The only life being threatened here is yours, got that? Now be a smart human and tell me where Dawn Summers is before I rip out your entrails and hang you with them!"

The nurse that had been so resolute in shutting Giles down just earlier that night found herself slack-jawed at the sight of the vampire in front of her. As his eyes flashed yellow, she stammered out a room number and pointed in the direction Spike needed to go. Not waiting for further instructions, Spike took off. His eyes were half-closed as he moved through the halls, guiding his way to Dawn nearly by instinct alone.

Finally he found his way to the room where Dawn and Buffy had been moved. Inside, he could hear the sisters and the Watcher all happily chatting. He stood in the doorway for a second just observing the tender scene before striding in. "Miss me?" he asked, trying his best to sound confident despite his clearly injured state.

Dawn shrieked when she heard Spike, turning around to greet him. Then she shrieked again when she saw him, this time in horror. Bruises covered nearly all of his normally handsome face, and under the tatters of his clothes, more cuts and bruises could be seen.

"Dear Lord, Spike, what happened?" Giles asked in surprise.

"I had a run-in with our favorite psycho-god. I'm afraid I didn't fare so well."

"Glory...Glory did this to you?" Dawn asked, slowly reaching as if to touch him before pulling her hand back sharply.

"Fraid so, little bit. She was keen on finding out who the Key is. The bruises are in response to me telling her to go to hell." Spike reached out and stroked Dawn's hair. "I'd die before I ever let her hurt you…nearly did, truth be told."

Tears were running down Dawn's face, and she stood on her tip-toes to give Spike a gentle, lingering kiss, uncaring of who was watching. Knowing that he had nearly been tortured to death just to protect her made all of her resolve to keep him at arm's length melt away like the morning dew. She couldn't be angry with him for messing with her sister…not after he'd shown he was willing to die for her.

Spike groaned and leaned into the kiss, cupping the side of her face as he pulled her closer. "I love you," he whispered so only she could hear.

"Ahem," was the sound that came from behind the couple as Giles and Buffy both coughed politely, trying to get their attention.

"As touching as this is," Giles said tersely, "have we forgotten the one simple fact that Spike is the sod who happens to be the reason for Buffy's present condition?"

"Such language," Spike said, in fake shock. "Is this the thanks I get? I did you all a good turn. The only guts I spilled to Glory were the literal sort."

"But you tortured _my_ Slayer!" Giles said possessively.

"Well, 'your' Slayer tortured me more time than I can count, so I'd say she had it comin'. Eye for an eye and all that. Now if you want any chance of defeating Glory, we'd best call a truce. If she could do a number like this on me, just imagine what she could do to your frail body, old man."

"I should stake you myself," Giles growled.

"Giles, no!" Dawn exclaimed.

Buffy groaned and climbed out of bed, stepping between the feuding males. She put a hand on each of their chests to keep them from lunging at each other. "Now boys," she said calmly, "I think we've had enough injuries for one night. As much as I hate to admit it, for once in his life, Spike's right. We will need all the help we can get in the battle with Glory." She turned towards Spike, and looked him in the eye. "What you did to me was cruel and childish, but what you went through to protect Dawn more than evens the score. Think we can forgive and forget?"

"I'm not much for forgiveness, and I certainly never forget, but I suppose I could play nice for a while," Spike responded sarcastically.

"Truce, then?" Buffy asked, extending her hand.

Spike just stood there staring at Buffy, not really prepared to trust the kinder, gentler Slayer, until Dawn elbowed him in the ribs. Finally, he sighed dramatically and said, "Yeah, truce," as he finally shook her outstretched hand.

Buffy turned to go back to her bed, and she swooned slightly after the first step. "Buffy!" Giles exclaimed as he caught her and helped her ease into bed. "You must rest. It will only endanger you further if you attempt to push yourself while not at full strength."

"Wow, I guess I really did get hit hard on the head. Pretty soon I'll be able to challenge you for the title of King of Concussions," Buffy teased. "Or, Queen of Concussions, in my case."

"Yeah, right," Spike muttered. "Ponce needs to learn how to fight."

Giles pulled out a vial of holy water and uncorked it. "Another word and this becomes the proverbial salt in your wounds."

"Spike was just leaving, Giles," Dawn said as she pulled him towards the door. "We're gonna go take a little walk...be back in a bit."

Before anyone could protest, Dawn ushered Spike out the door. "So where are we going, luv?" he asked.

"Well, I can't have you being all bruisey, so I thought we could go find you some blood. That should help you heal, right?"

"I'm always up for a pint," Spike said nonchalantly. "I've filched blood from this place lots of times. C'mon, I'll show you the way...just in case you ever get the urge for O negative or something."

"Eww...gross," Dawn replied, giving him a disgusted look, but she still followed quickly behind Spike, wanting to keep him occupied and away from her sister and Giles. Their little truce would never last if Spike and Giles couldn't stop baiting one another.

Once they found where the blood was stored, Spike hungrily devoured four bags of blood. Growls rumbled in the back of his throat as he finished off his meal. He grabbed a set of scrubs to wipe the excess blood from his face, and there was already a noticeable decrease in the amount of bruising.

"Wow...you're like Wolverine in the X-men."

"Come again, luv?"

"You know, X-men, the comic? Wolverine is a mutant, and his special ability is to heal quickly and in the movie they made from the comic Rogue is really young and she likes him so it's kind of like us in a way except that you like me back...oh, never mind," Dawn said, ducking her head bashfully as she saw the bemused look on Spike's face.

"No worries, pet," he said, stroking her check. "You somehow manage to make babbling look sexy," Spike leaned in to kiss her, but just then, they heard voices coming from outside the room. Quickly, Spike grabbed Dawn's hand and led her out the back exit to the room and up a set of stairs that led them to one of the X-ray rooms.

The room was empty, but up on the view screen were several pieces of film showing the inside of a person's head. "Wow..." Dawn said in a hushed tone, "it's like seeing into someone's mind."

She was just reaching up to touch one of the slides when Spike doubled over in pain behind her. "Spike!" Dawn yelped, rushing to his side. "What is it?"

Spike had his hand pressed to his stomach, and when he pulled it away, his fingertips were red with blood. "I guess fist-sized puncture wounds take a bit more time to heal up...running up the stairs probably wasn't the smartest move" he groaned.

"I might know how to help," Dawn said, an idea forming in her mind.

"How's that?"

"You said my blood was all powerful and stuff, right?"

"Those words might have crossed my mouth," Spike said cautiously, fearing where this was leading.

Dawn pulled her hair to the side and offered up her neck. "Feed from me," she said.

"Thanks for the offer, luv, but no thanks. You're weak as it is. You keep all those yummy red blood cells to yourself."

Dawn stepped closer to Spike, trying to look seductive but uncertain of whether she was succeeding. "Please..." she practically begged, her eyes wide and pleading. She took his one hand and slowly licked the blood off of the fingers. "Please..." she repeated.

Spike's resolve crumbled as he pulled her into a rough kiss. He never could say no to a beautiful woman, especially not one he loved. It had always been his greatest weakness. He nipped and sucked at her lips before moving down to her neck. As always, he was careful when he bit into her, not wanting to cause any more pain than was necessary. Dawn moaned and closed her eyes, letting the sensation of him suckling her carry her away.

Feeling Dawn's legs start to buckle (and uncertain of his ability to hold them both up in his weakened state) Spike slowly lowered Dawn to the ground. Bracing himself over her, he continued to gently feed, but he forced himself to take only a few mouthfuls. Dawn gave a short whimper of protest as Spike's fangs slid out of her, but she didn't try to stop him as he turned to lie next to her on the cold tile floor.

"I can never get enough of that," Dawn smiled. "I feel all tingly."

"That might be lack of blood flow to the extremities, luv. I really shouldn't feed off of you so much."

"No complaints on this end," Dawn giggled.

Spike allowed Dawn to cuddle next to his side for a few minutes before insisting they should go back to the room so she could rest. As they were about to exit, a pair of doctor's came in. Spike quickly pulled Dawn into the shadows as they observed the two.

"Thanks for coming to look at this," the first doctor said to his companion. "I wanted to be absolutely certain on this diagnosis."

The other doctor looked at the slides closely and came to a quick conclusion. "I hate to say it, but what we have here is definitely life-threatening. The biopsy has already shown that this is a malignant growth, and while the patient may not be experiencing any severe side effects as of yet, if the tumor expands, she will begin to experience some serious problems. Without surgery, I'd give her a month, two tops. If the patient is willing, I would operate as soon as possible. It's a risky surgery, but at least it would give her a chance."

The first doctor sighed heavily. "That's what I was afraid of. I hate delivering this kind of news. To make matters worse, the woman's whole family is in the hospital. Her two daughters were both admitted this very night. Let's just hope the mother has her daughters' gift for rapid recovery."

"If you'd like, I can come with you when you tell them. What's the patient's name?"

"Summers. Joyce Summers."

Dawn's grip on Spike tightened as she listened to the doctors' conversation from her secluded corner. She hadn't realized her mother's condition was so serious.

"Oh God, Spike!" she whispered, turning into his chest to muffle her sobs as her whole body began to shake.


	16. Chapter 16

Spike escorted Dawn back to her room in silence. She was in a dazed state, worse even than the night she had unwittingly discovered that she was the Key. With his help. Always with his help. If he hadn't been with her that night, she could have found out from her family, from her friends. Not in a way that more closely resembled a blow to the head than a discovery. And this was just the same. Poor kid didn't need to find out about her mom that way...wouldn't have either, if she hadn't been with him.

Spike was beginning to feel deep pangs of guilt, made all the more severe by the fact that he so rarely experienced such feelings. As a vampire, he never really had cause to embrace such a…_human_…emotion. Wasn't that supposed to be the deal…no soul equals no regret? Maybe a soul wasn't the bright, shining beacon of goodness that everyone made it out to be…after all, there were humans a-plenty that were rather evil, soul and all.

Or maybe he was finally going soft.

Either way, the feelings of guilt were crushing him. It was all he could do to keep staring stonily ahead as they slowly made their way back to Dawn's hospital room. What he really wanted to do was run and hide…distance himself from his beautiful Dawn before he stripped away all of her innocence and left her as twisted as himself.

Dawn, feeling Spike's guilt flowing through her in painful currents, came out of her daze to give Spike's hand a squeeze. "Not your fault," she said softly. "You didn't give her cancer...you didn't make me the Key."

"But luv, there were ways of disclosing these choice tidbits of information that wouldn't have been so hurtful. Maybe it's 'bout time you realized that running with the likes of me is not doing you any good. Nothing but pain and suffering seems to follow in my wake."

"Spike, do you really think that there is any _easy_ way to hear that you're mom is dying? Do you think _timing_ would make it all better? There is nothing you could have done…nothing for you to feel guilty about. You are the best thing I have going in my life right now…the only one who can make me deliriously happy even in the middle of all this badness. But if you really want to help…stop wallowing. When you're upset, it only makes it worse for me, ya know…you being inside my head and all."

Dawn said this last bit with a slight smile, trying to create an air of levity, but Spike felt even worse after hearing it. Dawn glared at him and gave him a punch in the stomach, letting him know that his little dive deeper into self-loathing was _not_ the help she was looking for. He gave her a sheepish grin and forced himself to think of cheerier things. Torture. Railroad spikes. Now there were happy thoughts.

Inside his head he began to sing: "Ninety-nine bleeding bodies on the wall, ninety-nine bleeding bodies. Take one down, pass it around, ninety-eight bleeding bodies on the wall..."

Dawn grimaced as she looked up at Spike. "That's really gross...you know that, right?"

"Hey, if you can't take the gore, get out of my head," Spike said with a cocky grin, letting Dawn's lightened mood wash away his uncharacteristic feelings of remorse.

Dawn laughed, and Spike took pleasure in seeing her mood visibly improve because of him. He was able to keep her smiling the whole time they meandered through the hospital... right up until the moment they entered her room. Dawn stepped into the room, ready to send another taunt Spike's way, and her voice caught in her throat. Giles had Buffy cradled in his arms as best he could, her whole body shaking with the force of her tears.

Dawn just stood there in stunned silence. Finally, she asked in a trembling voice, "It's Mom isn't it? Is...is she gonna die?"

Buffy and Giles immediately started from their mournful embrace.

Buffy reached out one arm, beckoning Dawn to join them. Together, the three of them shared in their grief for a short time while Spike shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. Normally in this sort of situation, he would laugh or make some rude remark, but he didn't think that course of action would help him uphold his long-standing goal of a stake-free existence. And hell, he didn't like it that Joyce was sick any more than the rest of them did. He just didn't fancy getting his kum-ba-ya-ya's out in a big group hug. So he stood by and watched in awkward silence as the three of them wept, a luxury big bad vampires were rarely allowed.

Finally, the three of them broke their embrace. Buffy wiped the tears out of Dawn's eyes and stroked her hair back. "Dawnie, the doctors gave us some bad news about mom…which I'm guessing you figured out already, given all the crying. Well, what they found out was that all that pain she's been having is from a tumor in her head. She's got cancer...and if they don't remove the tumor soon, she could die."

Dawn tipped her head so that her hair covered her face as fresh tears began to fall. Buffy grabbed her chin and tilted her head up, staring intently into her eyes. "Listen to me, just because Mom needs an operation, _doesn't_ mean that she's going to die. Ok? You _have_ to believe that."

"I do...it's just...what happens if she _doesn't_ make it?" Dawn asked in a scared voice.

"The doctors say she has a fighting chance if they operate right away. They don't want to risk chemotherapy because if it doesn't work and the tumor grows, it will be too late to do anything. Her body would be too weak for emergency surgery at that point. So…so they're recommending immediate action. She's scheduled for tomorrow morning at 8 a.m."

Dawn's brow furrowed slightly. "How could they fit her in so soon? I thought you had to wait weeks to get an appointment with a brain surgeon."

Buffy paused for a moment, looking for the proper way to phrase what she needed to say. "There was a man scheduled for tomorrow, but he couldn't make his appointment..." Buffy said with reservation.

"That's impossible!" Dawn exclaimed. "People who need brain surgery just don't cancel appointments."

Spike came up from behind her and gave her a pat on the back. "What big sis is trying to ever-so-delicately say is that the bloke who was scheduled for tomorrow...well he may still be in the hospital... but his bed's moved to a decidedly…chillier…location."

"Spike!" Buffy and Giles exclaimed, their voices tinged with disapproval.

"Hey, don't get your knickers in a knot over me! When are you finally going to realize that Dawn here outgrew sugar coatings a long time ago? She had to, living in a place like this, with a sister like you. This girl...she has to bear the weight of the world on her shoulders just as much as any of you. The least you can do is treat her like an adult every now and again."

For a moment there was silence, then Buffy opened her mouth to give an angry reply, but she was stopped by a sudden commotion outside of the door.

"Excuse me, sir…young ladies! Visiting hours are over! You _can't_ go in there!"

There were several loud sounds and quite a few more screeches that came from the hallway, before Anya, Willow and Tara came bursting into the room, followed closely by Xander, who was brandishing a chair like a lion tamer at the angry nurses outside. Finally, he dove into the room, slammed the door, and jammed the chair underneath the knob, blocking their entry. After making sure the door was secure, he turned towards the room's occupants and gave a deep bow. "Xander Harris and his harem of helpers have arrived," he said with a flourish.

"He doesn't mean that," Anya said. "We're not a real harem…he's only sleeping with me."

"Yes, we are all quite aware of that," Giles said with a slightly bemused smile, glad for anything to break the horrible tension in the room.

Buffy beamed at her friends. "What are you all doing here?" she exclaimed.

"Hey, we're the Scoobies. When Giles called and told us you were in here, we came as soon as we could. You can just call me moral support gal," Willow grinned, giving her a hug.

"A...all of you look really beat up. What happened?" Tara asked timidly.

Spike snuck up behind the shy girl who had yet to notice his presence in the room. He tapped her on the shoulder and she screamed the moment she saw him.

"Yep, I win the prize for most gore," Spike said cheerily.

Despite Spike's attempt at levity, Buffy and Dawn both gained rather lost, haunted looks in their eyes, Tara's question shattering the brief happiness they had felt at the arrival of their friends and bringing reality back to smack them in the face. Not trusting Spike to tell the tale with any degree of validity, Giles found himself bracing to deliver the many pieces of upsetting news. He took his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose

"Right, then. Where shall I begin?" he said with a sigh as he struggled to recount the events of the day without having a breakdown of his own.


	17. Chapter 17

Giles allowed a slight smile to grace his face. It was such a rare thing to find a moment of peace lately, yet here it was, in the middle of a hospital no less. Around him, everyone was sleeping. Buffy was resting quietly in her bed, and in the next bed over, Spike and Dawn lay curled together.

There had been a huge argument regarding that particular sleeping arrangement, no one wanting to see the vampire in bed with Dawn. But Dawn and Spike had been the first to drop off, around 3 a.m., creating their own cocoon of peace in each other's arms. And once they were asleep, nobody had the heart to wake the poor couple, especially given how injured and exhausted they both were.

Awkwardness over sleeping arrangements aside, everyone appeared to take the news of Dawn and Spike's strange relationship rather well, seemingly taking their cues off of himself and Buffy. Since neither of them were fighting the matter, the rest of the group took in the information with quiet acceptance. Although he rather believed that Xander didn't quite understand just what he'd been told. But they could face that problem when it arose.

The rest of the children had stayed up until nearly sunrise. Giles had explained to the best of his ability the events that had transpired, and all of them had been so shocked, more by the severity of Joyce's illness than anything else. Talk of mystical connections, androids, and hellgods seemed trivial when compared to the terror of cancer.

For a while, silent tension had filled the air, until the pizza man knocked at the door. Xander grinned impishly and ran to the door, looking down the hall nervously before tossing some cash at the delivery boy and snatching the food inside. After that, much needed frivolity had abounded. Giles had stayed awake and watched it all. Once they had all fallen asleep, he too drifted off.

But old habits die hard. Once again he found that he was the last to sleep and the first to rise. He could hardly believe the time when he glanced at the clock. It was nearing mid-afternoon, yet he couldn't muster the will to wake everyone while they were still sleeping so peacefully. Xander, Anya, Willow and Tara were all curled up on the floor at his feet, slight snores filling the air. He hadn't the heart to wake them.

The choice was taken out of his hands though, when a doctor entered the room.

"Mr. Summers?" he asked quietly, peering into the dim room.

"No, no. Rupert Giles," he said as he rose to his feet, cautiously stepping over the sleeping figures and slipping into the hall to speak to the doctor. "I...I'm a close friend of the family. Mrs. Summers...Joyce...is she alright?"

The doctor smiled at him and patted his shoulder reassuringly. "Yes, that's what I've come to tell you. She went into surgery earlier this morning and she's in recovery right now. Given the invasiveness of the surgery, she will probably be asleep for another day at least, but I just wanted to let you know that everything went very smoothly. We couldn't have asked for a better surgery. After she awakes, we'd still like to keep her for observation for another day or so to make sure complications don't arise, but after that she should be free to go home."

"That's absolutely splendid!" Giles exclaimed.

"I'm sure you're little 'family' will be happy to hear the news as well. But if I were you, I'd give them a few more hours of sleep. From what the nurses told me, a group of young people were up the entire night terrorizing the floor and making quite a ruckus."

"They are quite the handful," Giles admitted with a smile. "But they are quite devoted as well. You couldn't ask for a better group to be at your back in times of trouble."

"I'm glad to hear it," the doctor replied. "One of the greatest factors in a speedy recovery is having loyal support. It boosts the spirits of patients. Enjoy telling them the good news. I have to go on rounds now."

"Thank you very much, doctor."

"You're very welcome. Oh, and Mr. Giles?"

"Yes?"

"Glad to see you've managed a trip to the hospital _without_ blunt trauma to the head," the doctor teased, having recognized Giles once he stepped out of the dark room.

"Indeed," Giles smiled in reply.

He moved to go back into the room, and inside he heard many loud scuffling sounds as the room's occupants hurried back to their original positions, not wanting to be caught with their ears pressed against the door. Once inside, he was nearly barreled over by the two Summers girls as they flung their arms around him.

"Oh my God!" they squealed in unison. "She's going to be alright!"

Giles smiled down at the beaming faces of Dawn and Buffy. "Yes...I believe she will."

Down the hall the workers at the nurses' station frowned at the loud noise resounding from the Summers' room. The sounds of joyous laughter and whoops of relief could be heard over the entire hall.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_(several days later)_

"I'm not so sure about this," Joyce said, looking up at her daughter with trepidation in her voice. "Really, I feel fine. The doctors gave me medicine for my headaches, and I have numbers I can call in case of an emergency. I don't think this is necessary."

"But Mom, you need someone to look out for you. What if you forget your medication or have a dizzy spell? The doctor said memory loss and faintness are common after brain surgery. I hate the idea of you going through all of this, but I can't be there all the time, what with the Slaying and all. The bad guys won't sit quietly at home if I tell them I want to take a vacation and chill with my mom. And she can help watch Dawn too. It's only temporary, until you're back on your feet again."

"But Buffy, it's just so…so…_strange_. I mean, she looks just like you." Joyce said, looking up at what could be her daughter's twin standing next to Buffy. Then she turned her eyes onto the vampire standing slightly back from everyone else. "And Spike, while I appreciate the gesture, I really would like to know why you had a robot created that is an exact replica of my daughter."

Spike tried his best to not look guilty as sin as he began examining a spot on the rug. "I...um...that is..." he stammered, not able to find words to explain without him getting a full blown lecture.

"Spike thought she could help with Slaying," Dawn piped in quickly. "He knew Buffy was going through a lot and figured a robot could do some light patrolling and stuff so Buffy could concentrate on her family. When he found out how sick you were, he had her programmed with all kinds of medical info so she could watch over you."

"While that's very...sweet, I suppose...I'm not certain that I'm comfortable with a robot version of my daughter taking care of me."

"Please, mom," Dawn pleaded. "I can't stand the idea of something bad happening to you, and it won't be all the time. Just when Buffy has to go after a big bad guy or save the world or something."

Joyce looked at the figures peering down at her in her bed. Two Buffy's staring at her was almost too much for her to take, but then she saw the concern etched in all of their brows...well everyone except the Buffybot, who was smiling blithely at her...and she decided that it couldn't hurt to at least give it a try.

"Alright, Dr. Buffy can stay, but only until I'm better. I might have a heart attack if I have to deal with two Buffy's on a full-time basis."

"Gee, thanks Mom," Buffy said sarcastically, before bending down to give her a hug.

"Ok, now everybody shoo," Buffy said, making motions towards the door. "You just got back from the hospital, so you really should rest. Take a nice nap, and I can make dinner for you later."

"Ok, is this really my daughter, or is this the robot speaking?" Joyce asked with a wry smile.

"Hey, I can cook!" Buffy protested.

"So, Joyce, would you like your cereal with or without milk?" Spike quipped.

"That's not fair! I can cook...honest!" Buffy protested.

"Whatever you say, honey. But you might want to have the robot help you just in case."

"Fine," Buffy grumbled, dragging the Buffybot behind her.

"But I'm not programmed to cook!" the Buffybot exclaimed.

"You'll learn. C'mon, we've only got five hours until dinner. If we hurry we might make it."

Spike chuckled as Buffy hurried to the kitchen, and he and Dawn were about to leave when Joyce stopped them.

"Hold on you two. I want to ask you something, and I want an honest answer."

"Sure, what is it Mom?"

"Well, I've noticed how...close...you two have become recently. And I guess there is no easy way to ask this, so here goes. Spike...are you sleeping with my daughter?"

"Mom! How could you ask something like that?" Dawn exclaimed.

"Dawn, sweetie, I'm not a fool. I learn from my mistakes. Buffy was dating Angel for months before I realized she even had a boyfriend. She slept with him, and the world nearly ended. I'm not going to make the same mistake with you. I can live with my daughter dating a vampire. God knows I've learned to accept stranger things in the past couple of years, but there will be ground rules set. Understand? So Spike, I'll ask again...are you sleeping with my daughter?"

"No, ma'am" he answered, for once trying his best to _not_ appear menacing and evil.

"Do you _want_ to sleep with her?" Joyce asked in a firm tone.

Spike's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He opened and closed his mouth a couple times before snapping it shut, his teeth making an audible clicking noise.

"You listen hear young man..."

"Now Joyce, I'm over a hundred years old. I hardly think the term 'young' still applies."

"You know what I mean...now just listen. My daughter is only 14 years old. That is far too young for her to be engaging in sexual activity with a boyfriend."

"Mom...I'll be fifteen tomorrow, remember? I'm not a kid anymore. I don't need the big 'sex talk'. And _technically_, I'm a blob of energy that is thousands of years old…with a human body that is less than a year old. All but the last few months of my memories are totally fake. So, when it comes down to it, I don't think it's fair to label me with silly things like age."

"And you know," Spike piped in, "back in the day, a fifteen year old girl would already be married with a little one by her side."

"Will you _please_ just listen to me without interrupting?" Joyce yelled in frustration, her hand coming up to her temple to rub at her throbbing head.

"Oh...oh my," Joyce said, suddenly gripping her head in both hands and lying back in her bed.

"Mom!" Dawn exclaimed, rushing to her side. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine...just fine. My head just hurts a little, that's all. Now if you'd just let me finish, we can avoid more of this. The only point I wanted to make is that my daughter, while mature for her age, is still growing up. You can feed me all the technicalities you want about her being thousands of years old, but the truth of the matter is that in my mind, and more importantly, in _her_ mind, she's still in her early teens. And as such, she is too young to be having sex with anyone…a vampire least of all. I will give you my blessing to date, because Lord knows forbidding it won't do me any good, but promise me you will be the gentleman I know you once were."

"No sex till she's older...do you both understand that?" Joyce said sternly.

"Yes, ma'am," they both sheepishly replied, a bit embarrassed by the whole line of conversation.

"Ok children, I think I am going to take that nap now. It's such a lovely day though...why don't you go outside and play?" she said drowsily, her impromptu speech having drained much of her energy.

"Uh, Mom? The sun's out," Dawn replied with a nervous glance at Spike.

It was too late though. Joyce had already fallen into an exhausted sleep. Spike and Dawn quietly tip-toed out of the room. Once outside, Spike frowned and turned to Dawn.

"Your mum, you don't think she has it in for me do you?"

"No, of course not. My mom likes you, even knowing you're a vampire and all."

"So the sun thing, just a slip of the tongue, right?"

"Absolutely."

"If you say so," Spike said as he grabbed Dawn's hand and dragged her away from Joyce's room. He was about to suggest that they retire to Dawn' bedroom until dinner when a loud crash came from the kitchen. A low growl came from Spike's throat as Dawn began to steer them in the direction of the noise.

"What's wrong, Spike?"

"Stupid Slayer is always ruining my plans. And they were good ones too!"

"Oh, and just what were you planning, mister?"

Spike leaned in towards Dawn, his eyes mere inches from hers. "Use that lovely connection we have, and you tell me, Nibblet."

Dawn's eyes opened wide as her mind was flooded with images of just how far they could go without actually having sex. Spike continued his mental assault while leaning in closer to lick the side of her neck. "All sorts of naughty things," he whispered seductively.

Dawn blushed furiously, but was saved from having to reply by the loud shriek that came from the kitchen. "Dawn! I think I need your help!" Buffy yelled.

Dawn pulled away from Spike slightly, and looked up at him with a grin on her face.

"So Spike, can you cook?"


	18. Chapter 18

Buffy plopped the last dish onto the table just as her mom came down the stairs from her nap.

"Mom! I was just about to come up and get you. Here...sit down. Dinner's all ready." Buffy rushed over to her mom and tried to help her sit down, much to the consternation of Joyce.

"Really, Buffy. You don't have to be so protective. Believe it or not, I _can_ still do a few little things on my own, like pulling out my own chair, for instance."

"Over-protectiveness is just my way of saying I care," Buffy said, giving her mom a quick hug from behind. "And remember what the doctor said...lots of rest and relaxation for you."

"Ok, ok," Joyce laughed. "I won't lift a finger. I await being served hand and foot."

Buffy did a fake curtsey, bowing deeply. "At your service, ma'am."

"Now where's my other little servant," Joyce asked lightheartedly.

"I'll get her," Buffy said. "DAWN!" she screamed in the general direction of the kitchen.

"COMING" was the shouted reply from the other room.

"She's coming," Buffy told her mom.

Joyce winced slightly. "So I heard."

Dawn poked her head out of the kitchen and then scampered into the dining room, holding another dish of food. Spike ran after her, but he slowed to a fast walk when he saw Joyce at the table. Dawn stuck her tongue out at Spike, setting the dish down in front of Spike's place at the table. She then sat down next to her mom, a triumphant look on her face.

"Dinner's all ready," Dawn panted.

Joyce raised her eyebrow and looked at her out of breath daughter. "So, what was that all about?"

"Oh, Spike was being all shy and wanted to eat his dinner in the kitchen where no one could see. So I 'convinced' him to eat with us by mentioning how he could start competing with Angel for the title 'King of all that is Broody'. In the stunned silence that followed, I stole his food so that he _had_ to come out and join us."

"Tall, dark and broody I'm not," Spike grumbled. "Joyce was gracious enough to invite me over so that we could do the whole 'get to know your daughter's boyfriend' thing….you know, as opposed to screaming bloody murder on account of me being a vampire and all. I thought the least I could do was eat my meal in the kitchen so your mum wouldn't get all queasy from the thought of blood being mixed into my plate of food."

"Wow...Spike and common decency. Two things I never thought would go hand in hand," Buffy snipped.

"I respect your mum," Spike growled. "You, on the other hand, can choke on your own vomit for all I care. I'm still the Big Bad you know."

"To me, you'll always be my teddy bear with fangs," Dawn said with a wink, throwing her arms around him and kissing him on the check.

"NOT helping things, luv."

"Well actually..." Buffy said, pretending to ponder something, "Spike is like a teddy bear with fangs who's been defanged. I guess that just makes you...a teddy bear."

"Just step a bit closer and we'll see if I still have fangs," Spike growled, leaping out of his seat and lunging at Buffy. Buffy stepped back, startled, and Spike had to remember to wince and hold his head as if he were in pain.

"Is it too much to ask for you to all behave for a little while?" Joyce sighed while holding her head. For a second there was total silence in the room. Then, as if on cue, the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," Buffy and Dawn shouted in unison, racing towards the door. Outside stood the entire Scooby gang: Xander, Anya, Willow , Tara and Giles, each laden with a different sort of dessert.

"Hey, guys. What are you doing here?" Buffy asked nervously.

"A little birdie told me that you were trying to cook, so I thought I would gather the Scoobies and come save the day. So desserts I bring," Xander said with a grin. "Poor Giles was absolutely lost without something to research, so I let him look up the number of a bakery. And ta da! Dinner is saved. Or at least dessert is saved, which we all know is the best part anyway."

"I'll have you know that dinner is on the table, and it's not on fire or anything," Buffy said, ushering everyone into the dining room.

"Well if it isn't Zapper and his merry crew," Spike said with fake cheer. "Come to provide some comic relief have you?"

"Hey! Maybe you didn't get the memo, but I'm save-the-day guy today."

"And just what did you save? A jelly donut from hittin' the ground?" Spike asked.

"I saved dinner..." Xander said slowing, suddenly looking around at the well laid out table in front of him.

"...from being a perfectly enjoyable event," Spike said, finishing his sentence for him.

"Just what are you doing here anyway?" Xander asked angrily. "It seems like everywhere I turn, you're there, like a cockroach you just can't get rid of. It was bad enough that you were hovering around the hospital last night, but now you're actually invading Buffy's home."

"Unlike _some_ people, I was actually invited," Spike replied snidely. "Seems like Joyce wanted some quality time with her daughter's new boyfriend."

"What?" Xander exclaimed. "You…you and Buffy? There's no way."

"No…him and Dawn, you idiot," Anya replied. "It's painfully obvious they're together."

"Uh…who's the what's it now?" Xander said, his confusion plain for all to see.

"Well, they did sleep in the same bed last night," Willow chimed in. "I sort of took it as a given that there was something going on there. It's kind of cute in a way…Dawn is following in Buffy's footsteps…dating a reformed vampire and all."

"And need I remind you," Giles said, "that I _did_ inform you last night about everything that has occurred recently. I quite specifically recall telling you that you are not permitted to stake Spike, no matter how bothersome he can be, because Spike and Dawn have forged a mystical connection to one another. And to hurt the one is to hurt the other. I thought I made it quite obvious that the depth of their connection would not be possible without emotions of a corresponding strength."

"But…but you said the connection was an accident," Xander replied weakly. "And you were all with the big words and the complex sentences. Guess some of the message got lost in translation. But the question still remains…why am I the only one totally wigged by the idea of Dawn…sweet, innocent Dawn…dating a vampire?"

"Sweet, innocent Dawn is sitting right here," Dawn said with an annoyed sigh. "And hello pot, the kettle is calling. You _are_ dating a vengeance demon, after all."

"_Ex _vengeance demon, thank you very much," Anya said with a glare.

"Sorry, _ex_ vengeance demon," Dawn said, correcting herself. "But seriously…why does this bother you so much, Xander? Buffy dated a vampire before. Willow dated a werewolf, and now she's dating a witch…now she _is _a witch. Why did you expect me to be the only normal one of the bunch? I'm not even human myself."

"I guess I just wanted you to stay young forever. Kids these days…you grow up so fast. One day you're this cute little blob of energy, and the next you're nearly an adult. And you take after your sister, you know. You both have _terrible_ taste in men," Xander said with a weak laugh.

"Hey!" both Buffy and Spike exclaimed at the same time. Then they looked at each other and frowned, mildly disconcerted that they were on the same side of an argument for once.

"Still," Xander continued, "everyone else seems to be taking this much more calmly than me. What gives?"

"Well, sweetie, we all had the chance to get used to it last night when we found out," Willow said with a soft, placating smile. "Last night, when apparently you had an out of body experience and weren't actually with us. Personally, I just figured if Buffy and Giles weren't wigging out, then who was I to make a fuss? You guys certainly have been patient with me and my choice of boyfriends…or girlfriends as the case may be," she said as Tara gave her a shy smile.

"Well, to be honest, once Giles got to the part about Mrs. Summers having a brain tumor, I sort of shut down. I mean, we face bad guys all the time. But you can't slay cancer," Xander said quietly.

"I'm really touched by your concern, Xander," Joyce said with a smile, trying to break the eerie quiet that had suddenly settled over the room. "You guys are like family, and I can't even express how much it means to me that you're all there for Buffy when she needs you. I'm sorry to have given you all such a scare, but as you can see, I'm fine now. So, why doesn't everyone sit down and join us for dinner? I'm sure we can squeeze in enough chairs."

"Sorry, Mrs. Summers," Xander said sheepishly. "We didn't mean to crash your party. Dinner looks great though," he declared as he grabbed a dish off the table.

"Hands off! That one's mine," Spike said quickly, reaching to take the dish away from Xander.

"Is that so?' Xander said, pulling away from Spike's reach as he dug a spoon into the steaming mixture of meat and dark gravy.

Spike raised his hands in mock defeat. "Fine, have it your way, mate. Never let it be said that William the Bloody wasn't the sharin' sort. Eat to your hearts content."

Xander lifted the spoon in triumph, and then stopped, inches from putting it in his mouth. "There's blood in here, isn't there?" he asked, noting the disgusted looks on everybody's faces. "Oh my God! There's blood in here!" He exclaimed, dropping the spoon back into the mixture and shoving the dish towards Spike. "Eww eww eww! I'm contaminated!" He quickly downed a glass of water, as if to remove the almost-taste of blood from his mouth.

"Why didn't anyone warn me?"

"Hey, I gave a go at warning you. Not my fault you don't trust good ol' Spike. Hell, I'm the one who _made_ dinner anyhow. You don't think Buffy could've done a spread like this all on her own, do ya? You should listen to me when I say don't eat something. Like the rolls for instance. Buffy and the robot _did_ make those all on their lonesome. They might be good if you're up for a chipped tooth…or a game of bocce."

"Spike cooked dinner?" Xander moaned incredulously. "The fabric of my world is beginning to unravel."

"There, there," Willow said, patting his shoulder. "It'll be alright."

Just then, the Buffybot came into the room, a basket in her hands. "Did I hear somebody say they wanted rolls?" she asked with a perky smile.

"Whoa," Xander exclaimed.

"Totally with you," Willow replied.

"Don't stare at her like that," Anja hissed. "You're only supposed to stare at _me_ like that."

"Sorry," Xander replied sheepishly. "It's one thing to hear G-man slip into lecture mode and tell us about an android version of the Buffster. It's totally another to see it in the flesh…or pseudo-flesh as the case may be."

"Tell us again why you felt the need to have a robot version of Buffy made," Willow said, eyeing Spike suspiciously.

"Heheh…no need to go into that again. Water under the bridge and all that," Spike said with a nervous laugh.

"Sit down…sit down everyone!" Dawn interjected, her voice bright with forced cheeriness. She had no desire to rehash that subject either…not when things were going so well. "If we keep standing around gabbing, the food will get cold."

Giles noticed Joyce leaning against the table with her head in her hands. Deciding to get things rolling, he picked up the platter of meat…the one not containing blood…and said, "Joyce, would you care to start us off?"

There was no response from Joyce, and a stab of fear raced through Giles' heart as he noticed how uncommonly still she was. "Joyce?" he said softly, giving her shoulder a slight shake. The gentle nudge was enough to upset Joyce's precarious balance, and her body fell to the floor.

"Oh my God!" Dawn screamed, racing to her mother's side. Joyce was completely unresponsive. "Mom...MOM! Wake up! You have to wake up!" Dawn frantically exclaimed, shaking her body roughly. "She's not breathing! Giles...do something! She's not breathing!"

Everyone scrambled to do what they could. Willow called an ambulance while Xander held Dawn and tried to keep her from panicking. When Giles determined that Joyce's heart was not beating, the Buffybot tried valiantly to save her, using shocks from her hands like a defibrillator to restart her heart. In between shocks, Giles administered mouth-to-mouth to ensure that oxygen was still getting to the brain.

Buffy stood apart from the group and watched in a daze as they tried to save her mother. She stood alone with silent tears streaming down her face. All she could manage to do was utter a confused, "Mommy?"

Deep down in her heart she knew…it was already too late.


	19. Chapter 19

"Damn you!"

_(kick)_

"You let her die!"

_(punch)_

"How could you do this?"

Buffy stood in the middle of the Emergency Room waiting area, pummeling her robotic counterpart into the wall. Each blow was more frenzied than the last as she slung accusations at the robot, each one subconsciously directed inwardly as well, her attacks on the Buffybot a tangible metaphor for her internal attacks on herself.

The Buffybot stared at her twin with a helpless look in her eyes. "There was nothing I could do," she said forlornly, for once no trace of chipperness in her voice. "Even if mother had been at the hospital, no one could have helped her. It happened too quickly."

Buffy slammed her fist into the side of the robot's face. "She was NOT your mother! She was MY mother...you are nothing but an unfeeling machine."

A confused look spread across the Buffybot's face. "But I do feel..." she spoke quietly. "Mother...Joyce...she was the center of my new programming. I was supposed to protect her at all costs, and I failed. Now...now it's like there's a hole in my programming, an entire section of my being that is no longer valid because Joyce has ceased to exit. I feel like I should be doing something functional, but I can't. I should be getting her tea, helping her with chores, making her comfortable, but she's gone and there's nothing for me to do. I'm useless. I still must protect Dawn, but what if I fail at that too? I...I don't know how to deal with these...feelings." The Buffybot said this last word with an air of reserve, as if she weren't certain that was the proper word to describe what she was going through. It was illogical for a robot to be able to feel, yet she was upset that Joyce was gone. It was illogical for oily drops of liquid to be sliding down her cheeks, yet there they were. She hated that such illogical responses were built into her programming, but she had no choice but to adapt accordingly.

Buffy just stared at the Buffybot. It was as if the robot were voicing the exact things she was feeling. Helpless...lost...no purpose...have to keep going for Dawn. Buffy was stunned into stillness. As she relented from attacking her double, doctors and nurses rushed forward to restrain her, now that they were certain that they would not also fall victim to Buffy's wrath.

Tentatively, one doctor began to speak to her. "Miss, you can't blame your sister. She is right, you know. There is nothing anyone could have done. A blood clot formed inside your mother's brain, cutting off the oxygen. If it helps, she died very quickly, and probably with little pain."

"No it does NOT help!" Buffy shouted, her menacing glare causing the doctor to step back in fear. "My mother is dead...nothing will ever be able to help again."

Buffy said this last part with a sad, lost voice just before crumpling to the ground in tears. Immediately her friends and family surrounded her. Buffy and Dawn clung to each other like the last survivors of some horrible shipwreck, feeling totally alone in a harsh environment.

After a suitable wait, Giles approached the two girls. Kneeling beside them he asked, "Shall we move this to a more comfortable environment? I've completed the necessary papers and we are now free to go. I would like it if you girls stayed at my place tonight. You are in no condition to be alone."

Buffy stood up and dried the tears from her eyes. "I need to go home Giles. I can't stay with you. I need to be where she was...to see the indent in the couch where she always sat. To smell her perfume on her clothes. Because...because soon it will all be different. Her scent will fade and her stuff will get packed away into boxes and she will really be gone. I have to go home before everything about her disappears…because when that happens, I won't have a home anymore."

Giles pulled Buffy into a tight hug. "Of course I'll take you home, my dear. I'll do anything you wish."

Buffy let fresh tears fall from her eyes as she buried her head in Giles's chest. For a second she allowed herself to feel comforted and safe. Then she tensed and pulled away, feeling guilty for feeling any sort of happiness while her mother lay cold on a hospital slab.

"I...I need to use the rest room," Buffy said in a strained voice. "You guys can go wait in the car. I'll be out in a second." She said this hurriedly and then rushed off before anyone could respond.

Willow walked up to Dawn and put her arm around her shoulder. "Are you ready to go, Dawnie?"

"I have to see her," Dawn said in a quiet voice.

"Dawn, Buffy will be right out. No worries there," Xander said, ruffling her hair in a half-hearted attempt to make her smile.

"No, you stupid sod," Spike said, emerging from the sidelines where he'd been standing in an attempt to remain unobtrusive. "She wants to see her mum...something about closure I'd guess."

"I have to see her," Dawn repeated in the same, lost voice.

"I don't know if that would be advisable," Giles said in a tender voice. "Why not let your thoughts of your mother be pleasant ones? Don't taint her memory by remembering her as a corpse in a morgue."

"Giles, my last memory of my mother _is_ as a corpse. I remember her dead body slumping onto the ground from the table as her family and friends sat by and bickered while she died. It's our fault...if we hadn't been arguing her head wouldn't have started to hurt and she'd still be alive."

"Dawn, luv, you can't blame yourself," Spike said as he pulled Dawn into an embrace. "Your mum wouldn't want that."

"Spike is quite right," Giles said. "Blood clots do not form in the brain merely from one being exposed to bickering. If they did, I would have been dead long ago," he replied dryly.

Dawn attempted a smile, but only managed to turn the one corner of her mouth up for the briefest of moments. "I still want to see her. I need to know that she's really gone."

"I'm sorry Dawn, but I can't allow it. I believe the effects of seeing your mother's body would do more harm than good. This is a hospital…not a funeral home. The people here won't have tried to make her look presentable for family and friends. I know that you wish to say your goodbyes, but there will be time enough for closure at the funeral."

"You can't allow it?" Dawn asked angrily, her eyes narrowing. "You can't ALLOW it? You are NOT my father...you have no say in what I do. How _dare_ you tell me what I'm 'allowed' to do?"

"You're right, of course. Even if the hospital would allow you into the morgue, which I guarantee they won't, I have no legal control over what you do. And I've only been your friend and advisor for years now. I've only counseled you and your sister through many crises. Yes, what on earth would I know about anything?"

Xander hear the bitter, tired tone in Giles' voice, so he went up to Dawn and said, "Maybe you should give the G-man a break. He's only trying to help."

"Yeah, whatever," Dawn muttered. "I'm going to the bathroom now. Or do I need permission for that too?" she said snidely in Giles' direction before turning to leave, not even waiting for his answer.

Giles sat down with a sigh. Willow came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "She didn't mean any of that, you know. She's just stressed...we all are."

As Willow comforted Giles, Spike silently slunk away from the group. As he suspected, Dawn had no intention of using the bathroom. She walked straight past the ladies' room and circled around to take an indirect route to the morgue. Spike paused in front of the restrooms for a moment, a stricken look on his face. He guiltily looked at the door to the ladies' room and then at the retreating form of Dawn ahead of him. Settling some internal struggle, he quickened his pace to follow Dawn at a reasonable distance.

Dawn was able to slip unnoticed into the morgue. Her mother's body was laid out on a table, and the only light turned on in the room was shining directly on her. For a second she looked almost ethereally beautiful, a vision surrounded by light. Then Dawn got closer and saw the blue tinge to her mother's lips, the vacant expression in the once lively eyes, and she knew that there was no beauty here, only death. As if walking in slow motion, Dawn approached the body of her mother.

"Hey, Mom," Dawn began, speaking as if her mother were still alive. "It's been quite the day, hasn't it? You know, none of us were expecting this. I thought we'd be doing nothing but celebrating. You coming home from the hospital...me turning 15. Yeah, as of midnight, I'm officially 15...didn't you know? I think everyone forgot, what with you dying and all." A choked sob escaped Dawn's lips. "Yeah, happy birthday to me. But that doesn't matter now. All that matters is that you're gone and I don't know what I'm going to do. A girl isn't supposed to grow up without her mother. But I forgive you for leaving. Not like you had a choice really, but I forgive you anyway because that's like, what you're supposed to do. I know you're in a better place now, with no vampires, no Hellmouth...no cancer. And I'll keep you alive in my heart. Always. I'll always remember you." Dawn looked down at her mother, an almost peaceful look on her face. With quiet reverence, she kissed her first two fingers and placed them on her mother's cool lips. "Goodbye, mommy," she whispered.

Spike watched the whole scene from behind. He leaned against one of the occupied morgue slabs, blending in with the shadows and the air of death. Despite the morbid feeling he had that he belonged here amongst the corpses, it took all of his self-restraint not to yelp when the body beside him sat bolt-upright, eyes glowing yellow. With deadly silence, he rammed a stake into the new vampire's chest. The only noise made was the sound of the sheet sliding to the floor now that there was no body to hold it up.

This slight sound was enough, and Dawn pulled her fingers away from her mother and turned around, startled. "Spike!" she whispered in an agitated voice. "You scared me! What are you doing here?"

"Just makin' sure you're ok, little bit. I can't let my girl go roamin' around dead people all on her lonesome. In a town like this, you never know when the dead are gonna get up and take a bite out of ya."

"I guess I didn't think about that," Dawn said softly. "I almost wish my mom would get back up again."

"No you don't, luv. It wouldn't be your mum anymore. It'd be somethin' else. Somethin' evil wearin' your mum's face. You couldn't live with that."

Dawn wrapped herself in Spike's arms, silently conceding his point. "I just miss her, ya know? She's only been gone a few hours, and I already miss her."

"Yeah, I know. I miss her too...she was right decent to me."

"Let's get out of here, Spike...there's nothing left here for me."

"I always knew you were a smart one," Spike said, planting a soft kiss on Dawn's forehead. "What's say we go check on your big sis? Last I heard, she wasn't faring so well."

"Yeah, let's" Dawn replied as the two of them linked arms and left the body of her mother behind.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: **This was originally part of Chapter 19, but I felt that it was getting too long and cumbersome, so I split the chapter up into two chapters instead. Which means you get two updates in one night! Hope you enjoy. This chapter definitely earns the M rating.

* * *

Buffy ran away from Giles and dashed to the bathroom. She just felt too overwhelmed. She couldn't believe her mother was dead, and guilt threatened to overwhelm her as she realized that for a brief moment, she _enjoyed_ being in Giles's arms. She shouldn't feel happy about anything while her mother was lying dead on a slab. She only deserved to feel pain. She threw open the door to one of the bathroom stalls and began to wretch in the direction of the toilet bowl. She felt nauseated, but couldn't do anything except make dry heaving noises, scraping her throat raw.

Outside the bathroom, Spike paused. He could hear Buffy's combination of sobs and heaving, and the love he had once felt so strongly towards her compelled him to want to go in and comfort her. But he felt a stronger pull towards Dawn. Whatever he had once felt for the Slayer was dulled now into something unnamable...not friends, certainly not lovers, but not enemies either. But the surprising revelation that he felt compassion and not hate for the Slayer was not enough to counteract the protective instinct telling him to follow Dawn. So he left Buffy to her misery and followed his heart.

Eventually Buffy was able to calm down somewhat and drag herself up off the ground. Standing in front of the mirror, she splashed water on her face, washing away the streaks of mascara her tears had caused. Buffy attempted to find some sense of normality in making herself presentable, but a manic look still graced her eyes. Fussing obsessively in front of the mirror until she found herself at least somewhat less haggard, she rushed out of the bathroom…and ran right into Ben, the hospital intern she'd gotten to know over the course of her mother's illness. He'd even given her his phone number at one point…but she'd never called. It was all so normal…and normal was something she needed right now.

Ben was rather preoccupied. He was angrily on his way to retrieve the last of his personal belongings from his old locker now that he'd been fired due to 'excessive absenteeism'. He was totally unprepared when Buffy walked right into him.

"Buffy!" he exclaimed. "I wasn't sure I'd ever see you again! But it's good…to see you, that is." Then, noticing her tear-streaked face, he asked, "Are you ok?"

"No...I'm about as far from ok as a person can possibly get and still function."

"What happened...can I help at all?"

A crazed look fell across Buffy's eyes. She wanted to forget. She couldn't take this pain. "Yes, as a matter of fact, you can help," she said in a low voice, inching closer to him and placing her hands on his chest. "You remember our date that never happened? Well, I've reconsidered." She leaned in close and whispered into his ear, "My house, tonight, midnight."

"I...um...alright," Ben said, slightly confused yet very intrigued. When she'd never called, he thought that she wasn't interested. He wasn't about to let this second chance pass him by. As Buffy walked away, Ben rushed off to find her address from the hospital's medical records. He felt guilty about taking advantage of Buffy's obvious distress, but something overpowering inside of him was compelling him to take her offer.

Buffy walked away with an air of forced calm. She arrived back at the waiting room just after Dawn and Spike, and all of them rode home in silence. Once back at her house, Buffy approached the door with an air of caution. Something seemed off. She crept warily inside, doubly nervous when she found the front door to be slightly ajar. She had closed it, hadn't she?

Willow followed close behind Buffy, and gave her friend a hug as she turned on the lights. "Surprise," Willow said quietly.

Spread out in the living room were several sleeping bags and as much comfort food as a person could eat. Anya and Tara gave slight smiles and waved at Buffy. "Just call us the Buffy support group," Anya said.

"Um...you look confused," Tara said shyly in response to Buffy's dumbfounded look. "W..Willow called us from the hospital and told us what happened. That…that there wasn't anything the doctors could do. After you all raced off in Giles' car, Anya and I were gonna take a cab and join you at the hospital, but after Willow's call…well…there didn't seem to be much of a point. But W..Willow thought you might want some company tonight. So...we're here for you."

"Count me in too...I'm always there for ya, Buff," Xander said. "This isn't like, a girls only event, is it?"

"No, of course you can stay," Willow said as she put her arm around Xander's waist. "The more the merrier. You can stay too, Giles, if you want."

"I do think that would be quite like having a chaperone at a slumber party," Giles said with a soft chuckle. "I'll not do that to you. But I think it's a wonderful idea for there to be people here tonight. If Buffy and Dawn don't object, that is."

Buffy gave a nervous look at the clock...only nine o'clock...she had time. "Sure, whatever. My casa is your casa and all that."

"How cute...the gang is having a party. Give me my blood and chocolate ice cream and I'll leave you all to your own devices."

"Who said you were invited, Fangless Boy?" Xander said snidely.

"My intimate relations with both of the Summers sisters guarantees me my spot, boy. But why are you here again?"

"You wanna start something, Spike? Remember, I can beat you six ways to Sunday and you'll just have to sit there and take it like the neutered vamp you are."

Spike and Xander began to menacingly approach each other, and Willow deftly stepped in between them. "Now boys," she said in a chiding fashion, "I know we're all on edge, but we'll have no fighting here, ok?" She gave Xander an imploring look and he shrugged. "Whatever."

Willow turned to Spike and whispered in his ear, "There's Death By Chocolate in the freezer and blood in the fridge." Spike gave a pointed look at the other witch and leaned in close to Willow. "You're too good to me," he said in a sultry tone as he gave her a slight peck on the cheek. He gave an inward grin as Tara's eyes narrowed and she gasped slightly. He was evil after all...and causing a little tension to start between the sugary sweet couple was almost too easy. And he could use a spot of fun to help him blot out the decidedly human sensation of remorse he was feeling at Joyce's untimely death.

He didn't want to alienate his own woman though, so, his mischief managed, he turned around with a devilish smile on his face and grabbed Dawn's hand. "C'mon, little bit...let's go stuff our face with chocolate. I'll even let you have some before I pour blood all over it."

Buffy watched Dawn retreat into the kitchen with Spike, and she noticed that Dawn was missing the customary giggle that normally accompanied any activity involving Spike. Behind her, she could feel the silent presence of Giles. "Do you think she'll be alright?" Buffy asked quietly.

"She is strong, like her sister. I think she will survive. And as much as it galls me to say it, I'm glad she has Spike to lean on. But what about you, Buffy? You can't do this alone. Who will you lean on?" An unspoken invitation was in his voice, and Buffy turned around stepping mere inches from his body. She tried to look into his eyes, but she couldn't let herself face the love and acceptance she knew she would find there. She had let her mother die...she didn't deserve acceptance. Instead, she stared over his shoulder and said, "I'm the Slayer. It's my job to face the evils of this world alone."

"The Slayer always has her Watcher...do remember that Buffy."

A pained silence stretched out between the two. Finally Giles took his glasses off and rubbed away at a nonexistent spot. "Um, well...yes. I think I will be taking my leave now. Take comfort in your friends, and if you need me for anything, please don't hesitate to call."

As the strained scene between Giles and Buffy went on, another tense interaction was occurring in the dining room. Willow and Tara were standing close together, heads almost touching, but the exchange wasn't a sweet reaffirmation of how glad they were to be alive and together. Instead, it was a whispered, heated argument.

"If you wanted to be away from me, you should have just told me," Tara said quietly.

"What are you talking about? Where is this coming from?" Willow asked desperately, hurt and frustration filling her voice.

"First, you rush off to the hospital and leave me behind without a word of apology. Which…which I can understand since seven of us couldn't have fit in Giles' tiny car and you needed to be there for Buffy. But just now…you…you were flirting with them as if I didn't even exist!"

"Who?" Willow exclaimed, a confused sort of desperation in her voice.

"Every guy in that room! Xander, Giles...even Spike! If you want a man, I respect that, but at least have the decency to tell me the truth about it."

"Tara...we shouldn't be fighting over this. We live over a Hellmouth. Every single day we face death. _Today_ we faced death! We should be comforting each other, not fighting."

"Are you still attracted to guys?" Tara asked softly, tears in her eyes.

"What on earth does that matter? So what if I am...it doesn't matter who I'm attracted to...I choose you. I didn't realize I had to establish clear gay/bisexual lines to be with you. I mean, you are attracted to women, but I'm not accusing you of doing anything with Anya while we were at the hospital."

"That's absurd!"

"Not as absurd as you thinking that I want Xander, Giles or Spike."

"But I saw the way you put your arm around Xander, and the way Spike flirted with you. You enjoyed it!"

"Tara, we are NOT having this conversation now. Look, Buffy is going back into the living room. We are supposed to be here for her, not bickering over mild flirtation."

"So you admit you were flirting. I...I understand. Maybe I should just go...it would be easier that way."

"Tara...no. I want you to stay. Please... if not for me, stay for Buffy. She needs us now."

"Fine."

"Fine."

Willow and Tara re-entered the living room just as Giles slipped quietly out the door. Buffy came in looking like a lost puppy dog.

"So, how would you like us to amuse you?" Anya asked, her bluntness lightening the mood slightly.

"Guys, I don't know if I'm up for this," Buffy said softly.

"Hey, Buffster, we're all here for you," Xander said. "Don't make me start singing 'Lean on Me'...cuz I will if you force me to."

"Ok...ok. I give in. Anything but Xander singing," she said jokingly before letting her tone get serious again. "There is something we could do. Mom...she just loved those old, black and white romance movies. You know, the really sappy ones with great happy endings? Maybe we could watch one of those, you know, like in memory of her?"

"I think she would like that," Willow said.

Willow sat down next to Buffy on the couch and Tara located the seat as far away from Willow as possible, but she stayed for Buffy, so she wouldn't have to deal with her best friend's girlfriend problems on top of everything else. The mood in the room was a sleepy sort of sadness and soon the darkened room and crackly black and white film combined with everyone's general state of exhaustion caused everyone to drop off like flies. One by one they all fell asleep…everyone except Buffy. She was still wide awake and feeling incredibly alone. Just before midnight, Buffy slipped outside. The manic feeling was back, where she just wanted to crawl out of her skin and pretend that she was someone else.

When Ben arrived, she snuck him in the back door and up the stairs. She pretended that she was a teenager again, sneaking her boyfriend up to her room, trying to be quiet so that her mom wouldn't hear. If she tried hard enough, she could almost believe that her mother was just behind her closed bedroom door, ready to pop out and scold her for having a boy over so late at night.

Ben went along quietly, but when Buffy dragged him into her bedroom and began to pull his shirt off, he placed his large hands over hers, stilling her motion, and asked, "What is going on Buffy?"

"Can't we just…not talk?" Buffy asked, dragging Ben's head down for a kiss.

"Buffy, you know I want this," Ben said with shaky breath as he pulled away from her addictive kisses. "I've wanted this for a long time now. But I need to know what's wrong…to know that I'm not taking advantage of you in any way."

"You want to know what's wrong? Fine! My mom died tonight...and I need you to help me forget," Buffy said in a desperate voice.

"Oh, God! I'm so sorry Buffy. Do you...do you want to talk about it?"

"No," she said matter-of-factly, shoving him down on her bed.

"I don't know if this is a good idea," Ben said nervously as Buffy literally tore the shirt off his body.

"I don't care," Buffy replied, her voice low and sexy. As Buffy unzipped his jeans and began to run her hands over him, Ben groaned and found that he didn't have the will to protest any further. Who was he to deny a girl in need, after all?

* * *

Dawn and Spike had crept away from the party almost before it even began. Toting ice cream and blood, they crept up to Dawn's room. Now they sat there on Dawn's bed, the silence creating a distance between them even though they were only inches apart.

"Luv, tell me what you're thinking. You barely touched your ice cream. Let me into that pretty little head of yours. You have walls up so thick I can't even tell what you're feelin'."

"My mom's dead, Spike."

"Yeah, I know, bit. Rotten luck, that. She didn't deserve that sort of fate. But we can't change the past short of magic of the darkest sort, and I'll be dust before I let you meddle with that."

Dawn got a very reflective look on her face. "It's just, Mom was like the center of my world. The one person that could never die. This changes everything. I mean, if she can die, then Buffy can die...you can die. I can die. I don't want to die Spike. Maybe it's selfish of me, because if I were dead then everyone else would be safe. Glory couldn't use me if I were dead. But I don't _want_ to die Spike...I stopped wanting to the night I found you."

Spike trailed his finger along the side of Dawn's face. "I'm not going to let anything hurt you...I promise you that."

"I...I have an idea Spike. Something that will make everything better. You could consider it a birthday present to me."

"What's that, luv? You finally gonna let me get rid of that pesky virginity you've been clinging to?"

"Not quite yet, although I bet afterwards, ALL of my reservations will be gone," Dawn said, her voice full of promises waiting to be fulfilled.

"Ok, you've got me interested. Just what has that delightful mind of yours cooked up?"

"I want you to bring me across, Spike."

"Bring you across? Luv, you have GOT to stop watching that Forever Knight show. We don't 'bring people across.' We turn them...we turn them into demons with the face of the human they once were. You can't possible believe I will do that to you. That innocent thing you've got going on is right sexy."

"I'm serious, Spike! This is the best solution. You told me that Glory said the Key's blood is pure, that the Key can't be a vampire. If you make me a vampire, Glory can't use me to open a portal to the hell dimensions. We'll be saving billions of lives. I can still be innocent too. Well…sort of. Willow, she has like three sets of the ingredients for the soul restoration spell, just in case, you know. So even with a demon, I won't have to be all evil. And I won't die. I won't ever have to die. We can be together forever."

Spike leaned towards Dawn, her words inflaming desire in him. "You don't know how tempting you make it sound, luv," he said, his mouth inches from her neck. "But I can't. I'd be dead in so many ways if I even tried."

Dawn began to run her fingers up and down Spike's chest, toying with the button at the top of his black jeans before trailing her fingers back up to graze his nipples. Inside she felt uncertain, but outwardly she displayed nothing but practiced calm. Slowly she leaned back and peeled off her tank top, revealing a sapphire-colored satin bra underneath. Running her fingers over the top of her breasts, she sighed in a pouty voice, "Don't you want me, Spike?"

* * *

The bra hit the floor with a careless abandon. Her panties were soon to follow, leaving her totally naked. His hands gently traced the inside of her thighs while her fingernails scraped cruelly against his neck. "Rough...I need you to be rough," Buffy growled. "Make me forget everything but this."

Ben rolled on top of Buffy, staring into her grief-stricken eyes. His conscience screamed that he shouldn't do this, but he could already feel that panicky feeling inside of him, the feeling that heralded something else taking control. With a harsh thrust he was inside of her.

* * *

Spike was on top of her in a second, kissing and nipping at her neck, his fingers exploring the feeling of her breasts over top of the bra. As much as she seemed to be inviting him, he did not allow his hands to stray below her waist, to continue to remove her clothing until she lay bare before him. Instead, he pinned her beneath him, roughly pushing his hands into her flesh, bruising her delicate skin.

Dawn cried out in surprise, "Spike, you're hurting me!"

"That's what demons do, luv," Spike snarled, letting his fangs elongate. "You're a smart girl. You should know by now that my chip is long gone."

Fear flickered through Dawn's eyes, but her crazed state made her resolve firm. She looked up at him in defiance and said, "Good. I'm glad the chip is gone. I can't have you passing out from pain in the middle of turning me. The point is for me to live forever, not die in the process."

Spike's features softened as his eyes turned from gold to blue. Scare tactics over, he asked, "You really want me to do this, pet? You can't take this kind of decision back if you change your mind."

Dawn leaned up and kissed the vampire above her. "Thank you, Spike. No matter what happens, I love you. Remember that."

* * *

Buffy arched her back and groaned. Ben's fingernails left angry red welts across her skin, and his thrusts were causing a painful fire between her legs, yet she continued to beg him, "Harder...oh, please...harder." Nothing gentle and loving would do for this. She needed the physical pain to wipe away the emotional agony, so she could forget the image of her mother's dead body lying unnaturally twisted on their dining room floor.

Some part of her still felt guilty for her actions and worried what Giles…and the others…would think of her if they found out, but that crazed part of her mind that needed to escape was in control now. Then she felt Ben's hand creep between her legs, and as the rhythmic motion of his fingers caused a deep pleasure to mix itself with the pain, she lost the ability to think at all…which was _exactly_ what she wanted.

* * *

Dawn tilted her neck back, offering her life to Spike. Spike, despite his prior roughness, took the greatest care in sinking into her, his fangs barely causing her to wince as they slid into her neck. He suckled her slowly, much more slowly than he usually did. He needed to take more this time, and to do that, he needed control. There could be no violent draining of blood. Everything had to be precise for her to become a true childe.

Dawn moaned at the sensations coursing through her body. They started out mild, the slightest tingle in her neck. Then it began to spread like a fire through her. She felt her body respond, but it was stronger this time. Usually the peak came much sooner, but the pleasure just kept building and building as she felt him pass the point where he usually ceased his feeding from her. Dawn threaded her arms around his back in a fierce grip. She then wrapped her legs around his waist and leaned back as far as she could, opening her body as wide as possible to his advances. She no longer cared about anything, so long as he never stopped.

* * *

Their moans were almost constant now, increasing in pitch by the second. Frantically they slammed against each other, each possessed by some inner driving force. Finally, Ben gave a rough pinch with his fingers and Buffy went over the edge, releasing her pain and guilt and pleasure in a long, primal scream. Above her, Ben's low, masculine moan increased in pitch until it became feminine in tone, yet animalistic in its intensity.

"Oh...oh god! I'd forgotten what perks these human bodies have," Glory moaned, shuddering in her orgasm.

Buffy stared up at her in complete shock and confusion. "Wh...what? How? What...?" Buffy rambled shakily, still spasming from her own, powerful release.

Glory ran her finger along Buffy's thigh, licking up the blood that had gathered there. Continuing up her body, Glory lightly ran her hands over all of Buffy's various cuts and scratches. Buffy was too numb and confused to move, let alone protest. Finally, Glory crawled up the rest of Buffy's body. Leaning in close to her face, she asked with a smirk, "How's it feel to be fucked by a god, bitch?"

Buffy was only capable of letting out a small whimper of protest before the world collapsed into a flash of white.

* * *

Dawn clutched Spike's body tightly, trying to meld with him despite the layers of clothes separating them. He continued to drink and drink, and inside her she felt her body reaching the point of no return. If he continued much longer, she wouldn't survive without an infusion of his blood. Power flooded out of her as she screamed in rage and frustration and pleasure, such keen pleasure.

Then the world turned white as Spike's body was flung from her.


	21. Chapter 21

Spike groaned at the sensation of Dawn's blood filling his mouth. He'd wanted to turn her ever since the first twinge of love had begun to pull at his heart. This was better than love... better than sex...to turn her would be the ultimate form of possession, and as a vampire, possession was everything. He drank and drank until he thought he would float away from the sheer euphoria of it all.

Still feeding, he cut open his wrist with his fingernail. If he could coax her into drinking from him before she was completely drained, they could create a cycle of feeding that would allow her to become much more powerful than a new fledgling could normally be.

But the moment he placed his bleeding wrist against Dawn's mouth, he felt something change. Instead of the constant influx of pleasure that normally accompanied the creation of a childe, he began to feel as though he were approaching something dangerous. His mental link with Dawn flared, suddenly much more intense, and he felt true, mind-numbing fear for the first time in over a century as he observed the awesome power locked away inside of Dawn. His mind made the eerie analogy of two opposite ends of a magnet approaching each other, the pressure building until it was too much, and both objects being flung violently apart.

Perhaps the mental image was a warning, because soon Spike found himself in a world of pain. White light suffused his body, and he could almost swear he heard Dawn's frustrated cry of "No!" echo through his mind as his body was flung from her. Glory must have meant it _literally_ when she said the Key "can't be a vampire." Spike didn't have time to ponder that thought further though, because he was now crashing through the door of Dawn's room like it was made of paper. Luckily, the hallway wall was made of slightly sterner stuff, and it abruptly stopped his flight, causing him to bounce roughly off its now-cracked surface before he collapsed to the ground.

Spike stared up at the ceiling with a stunned look on his face, struggling to remain conscious despite the fact that every inch of his body was throbbing in pain. He was fairly certain that it was only Dawn's blood coursing through his veins that allowed him to suffer so much damage and remain awake. Then, through blurred vision, he saw a feminine figure dressed in tattered male attire emerge from Buffy's room.

"What's all the racket?" Glory complained in a whiny tone. "Can't a girl kill someone in peace?"

"You!" Spike moaned as he attempted to force himself into a sitting position.

"Would you look at that!" Glory exclaimed. "Mommy's pet vampire has come home to her! And you smell all like my Key."

"Yeah, speaking of scents," Spike said nervously, trying to stall for time while he regained his strength, "why is it that you smell like the Slayer? Never figured her for one to bat for both teams. She always seemed to get her jollies from driving stick."

Glory stalked towards Spike, her voice full of arrogance. "Men are so weak at the point of release. Really quite the design flaw, to have a moment where you're completely vulnerable. While Ben was getting his rocks off, I just slipped past the defenses and took control. Now I'm tingly all over...there are such perks to having a human body."

Spike cringed at the details of Glory's ramblings but kept trying to stall. "So, Buffy decided to go for a toss with the wanker that passes for your alter ego. Yeah, tall, dark and stupid, that seems more her M.O. I need to have a talk with that girl about her choice in men."

"Silly vampire, you're never going to have the chance to talk to any of your little friends again. See, I keep forgetting that you vampires have different brains. Poor Slayer, she had no idea why I was suddenly on top of her instead of my sorry excuse for a mortal half. She had such a cute, scared look on her face before I knocked her unconscious. I was just about to pop her head off her body when you had to go and release some mega cosmic energy. That wasn't very polite, you know." Glory began to look slightly crazed. She put her hands up to her head and began to scream.

"You stay away! It's my turn now! Dammit...if only I could brain suck vampires. I'm so hungry! Pretty boy, go get me some food."

Spike and Glory both turned as they heard a noise coming from the stair. From around the landing crept Tara, a baseball bat clutched tightly in her hands. "B..Buffy? Dawn? Are you ok? I heard a crash."

Tara reached the top of the stairs and stopped dead in her tracks. "Gl…Gl…Glory!" she stuttered, dropping her baseball bat in fear.

"Run you stupid bint!" Spike yelled, lurching to place himself between Glory and the frightened girl.

Glory batted Spike away with a flick of her hand, and he went flying into the wall yet again. She slowly approached Tara and began running her finger's through the poor girl's hair. "Such a pretty little victim. All innocent and sweet. But I smell a darker side, don't I precious? Little girl likes to play with magic. Tsk. Tsk. But don't worry, I'll make it all better."

"No, no, no! Please, no!" Tara cried in fear.

"Shh...shhh. It's ok. It's ok." Glory cooed as her fingers sunk into Tara's skull. From behind her, someone let out a strangled cry.

Smirking, Glory stared into Tara's vacant eyes. "Did you hear that? Your friend doesn't like the idea of you being all empty and insane. We don't want to upset your friends, do we?" With a twist, Glory snapped Tara's neck and sent her broken body flying down the stairs. "See, all better now." From below, a mournful wail could be heard, but Glory was more concerned with who was behind her. She turned around with a crazed smile on her face and said, "Now who is it making such a big fuss?"

Dawn's mouth opened and closed several times, but no words came out. Wildly she looked around her, trying to find some place she could run, but it was too late.

"You...I know you." Glory said as she approached Dawn. Her eyes fixated on the blood dripping from Dawn's neck. Ignoring Dawn's obvious disgust, Glory leaned forward and licked her neck. "Yes!" she cried, pulling Dawn into a tight embrace. "You're my Key. I've finally found you!"

Dawn struggled feebly against Glory's hold, still very weak from the blood loss. "Spike...Buffy! Somebody help!" she screamed.

Buffy staggered to the doorway of her room, supporting herself against the wall. "Dawn?" she said in a small, frightened voice that made her seem much more like a young girl than the mighty Slayer.

"Sorry, Slayer. You're too late." Glory said. And with that, she flung Dawn over her shoulder and grabbed the unconscious form of Spike off the floor, shattering the nearest window and leaping outside before Buffy could even make another sound of protest.

Buffy sank to her knees as the stress overwhelmed her. Some part of her knew she should chase after Glory before she got away, but her body was unwilling to cooperate. Her mother was gone, and now her sister was gone, and all she ever seemed capable of doing was standing by and watching it happen. Her mind began to retreat within itself, unable to cope with the reality she was faced with. She could faintly hear the sound of somebody's voice yelling at her, asking her what had happened, but the voice was distant and muted. It was much easier to just let it fade into the background as her sanity slipped away.


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: **A big thanks goes out to everyone who has reviewed. Being pestered to update really does help me write faster!

* * *

"Buffy, you have to wake up! Buffy!" Willow screamed frantically. Buffy stared vacantly ahead, giving no indication that she had even heard Willow speaking to her.

Willow clasped Buffy's head and stared intently into her eyes. "You don't get to do this Buffy," she said in a deadly voice. "I know you have lost people, and you are hurting, but dammit Buffy, so have I. That bitch of a hellgod took Tara from me, and she has taken your sister. It may be too late for Tara, but it is NOT too late for Dawn. Now snap out of it, and do your job. I'll be damned if I'm fighting this battle alone!" Willow exclaimed, slapping Buffy harshly across the face.

A tear trickled down Buffy's cheek as her forlorn gaze slowly unclouded and she finally focused her attention on her friend. "It's all my fault Willow. Glory got Dawn because I was weak, and now she's going to die. I've killed my sister..."

"Buffy...you have to tell me what happened. It's not too late. We can still get Dawn back. Just tell me everything that happened."

"I was so lonely, Will. I felt like I was the only person standing up against a world of evil and pain. So...so I decided I would just...let loose a little. I waited until you were all asleep. Then Ben came over..."

"Ben? The hospital intern? What does he have to do with any of this?" Willow asked, a perplexed look on her face.

"I..I don't know. It's all like a bad dream. Ben and I were...you know...releasing some pent up energy, and suddenly Glory was on top of me, asking how it felt to be screwed by a god. She didn't come from anywhere...she just appeared, and Ben was gone. It's...it's almost like they are the same person..."

"Glory and Ben the same person?" Willow exclaimed.

Buffy fixed a blank stare on Willow. "Ben? The hospital intern? What does he have to do with this? We need to be focusing on Glory, Willow."

"Buffy, you just told me Ben and Glory are the same person! What is with you?"

"Oh, yeah...my dream. I'd almost forgotten," Buffy said in a distant voice.

Willow rushed to find a piece of paper. Quickly she scrawled down the message "Ben and Glory are the same person." Even as she wrote, she could feel the memory trying to slip out of her mind. Holding the paper in front of her, she fixed her eyes on it. Slowly a black film covered her eyes. "Remember," she commanded. The letters on the page glowed like fire for a moment; then the letters flew from the page and glowed just as fiercely on her eyes. She walked over to Buffy and repeated the procedure.

"Oh my God! Ben is Glory!" Buffy exclaimed. "I...oh God...I let him touch me. I let _her_ touch me! I feel so...so dirty." Buffy crumpled to the floor and began to sob, filled with shame at what she had done.

Willow grabbed Buffy by the arm and yanked her to her feet. "Now is NOT the time. You can wallow in self-loathing later. Right now we are going to get ready to fight. You will be strong, and I will be strong. Perhaps if we are strong together we stand a chance. Do you got me?"

Buffy nodded mutely and together they made their way down the stairs. They were met halfway by Xander and Anya, who were rushing upstairs to see if everyone was ok.

"Willow...is everyone up here ok? Where's Dawn?"

"Glory was here. She killed Tara, then kidnapped Dawn and Spike." Willow reported this information as if reading from a newspaper. No emotion was in her voice.

"Oh, God Wills. I'm so sorry." Xander pulled Willow into a tight hug, which Willow tolerated but did not reciprocate. Finally Xander let her go, trying to hide the tears forming in his eyes.

"So...what are we going to do?" Xander asked, awkwardly as he released Willow from his embrace. "Obviously Glory has some strong mojo in addition to superhuman strength. Whatever that light was, it made the whole house shake."

"I don't think the light came from Glory," Buffy said softly. "Glory was in my...Glory was attacking me when it happened. She was thrown across the room by the blast. I think whatever it was came from Dawn."

"From Dawn? Why would you think that?" Willow asked.

"Because when I went into the hall, Spike had just been thrown through the door to Dawn's room and halfway through the hallway wall. But aside from a humungous hickey…which I so don't even want to think about…Dawn didn't seem to have a scratch on her."

"We need to research," Xander said, "figure out what we're up against."

"We don't need stupid books...we need to find Dawn!" Buffy yelled.

"Calm down Buffy! We'll find her...we just need to focus," Willow said. "Has anyone called Giles?"

"I'll call him," Anya said. "Maybe he has some books with information. He is good with information."

"Good," Willow replied. "We will need his help to fight Glory. We need all the help we can get."

"Wills, I hate to ask this, but what should we do with Tara's bod...with Tara. What should we do with Tara?" Xander asked.

"We can't really waste time with the police right now. I...I'll take care of her." Willow walked over to Tara's prone form. Her head was turned at an odd angle, and blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth.

Gently, Willow knelt down and brushed a strand of hair from Tara's face. For a second, she allowed her face to crumple in grief before she reigned in her emotions. Her face a stony mask, she stood up and backed away from the body.

"Come," Willow commanded.

Slowly Tara's body rose from the ground and began to follow her former lover outside into the Summers' backyard. Quietly Willow began to chant. At first it seemed like there was no effect, but gradually Tara's body began to glow with an inner fire, her skin taking on an opalescent translucence that grew brighter and brighter until her body burst into thousands of fairy-like clusters of glowing light. The lights swirled around Willow, caressing her body and weaving through her hair.

Willow floated into the air, spinning in the light as if she were dancing. For a second, Tara was almost alive again. But the moment was all too brief. She returned to the ground, and the light began to recede from her. A tear trickled down Willow's face. "I commend you to your rest, my love." At her words, the lights gathered tightly together once more, forming a fire-like image of Tara. The figure lightly kissed Willow's lips before exploding like fireworks. Some of the lights sank into the ground, glowing brightly before disappearing. Some raced into the sky to become one with the stars. Each light raced in a different direction until only a single spark of light remained, floating in front of Willow. Slowly it settled on to her forehead between her eyes, absorbing into her skin.

"I'll be with you always," a wind-like voice seemed to whisper.

Willow allowed one last tear to trickle down her face before she turned solemnly and went back into the house, leaving the rest of her grieving until a later time.

Inside she was greeted by Giles, who had just arrived. Quickly, she apprised him of the situation. She also patiently took the time to imprint the fact that Ben and Glory were one in the same into the minds of each group member.

"My Lord, Ben is Glory," Giles mused. "Do you realize the implications of this?"

"What do you mean," Xander asked. "Besides it being of the weird and kinky, I don't see how it helps us."

"To be in this dimension, Glory had to take on a human form. That we know. But if what you say is true, Willow, then Glory inhabiting Ben's body means that in addition to being part human, she is also part mortal."

"So if we kill Ben, we kill Glory!" Willow exclaimed.

"Hold on here," Xander exclaimed in a startled voice. "Before you two get all carried away with this little plan of yours, let me remind you this is a human life we are talking about. Who died and made you gods?"

"Tara died. Isn't that enough?" Willow asked, an unholy fire in her eyes.

"Will, you _know_ that I'm as upset as anyone else about Tara dying, but that doesn't mean we should go all kill-happy. What ever happened to two wrongs don't make a right?" he asked with a nervous laugh.

"Xander, if the choice were just between Dawn and Ben, even then I would choose Dawn's life over his because I love her dearly," Giles explained. "But the fact of the matter is that the choice does _not_ lie merely between Dawn and Ben. The fate of the entire world lies in the balance. Measured in those terms, one life seems insignificant."

"I still don't like it," Xander muttered. "Since when did we start calling _any_ life insignificant?"

"You don't have to like it," Buffy replied. "When the time comes, I am the one who will have to fight this battle. I am the one who will have to live with it."

"For now, why don't we just focus on finding Glory? Perhaps it will be possible to defeat her without taking a human life. We can't know until the time comes. But one thing is certain; we must find her quickly. From all that I have read, once she has opened the portal, there is only one way to close it..." Giles paused, unwilling to utter the words that could possibly condemn Dawn to death.

"What is it Giles? Whatever it is, we can deal with it. Just tell us," Buffy said.

"To...to open the portal, Dawn's blood must be spilt. Thus the converse is also true. To close the portal, Dawn's blood must cease to flow. For that to happen...Dawn...Dawn would have to no longer be living." Giles stared at the ground, unable to meet Buffy's gaze.

Buffy's eyes opened wide with shock. "I am NOT killing my sister," she yelled, her mind set. "Whatever happens, my sister is not dying because of me. And God help anyone else who even thinks of hurting her, because there won't be a place you can hide to keep me from you if you so much as touch a single hair on her head!"

"If the portal is open, all the hell dimensions will collapse into one. Earth will cease to exist, in which case your sister will die anyway, along with the rest of us. If you wish to prevent this from happening, I suggest we go about finding Glory before she can begin her ritual."

Giles and Buffy glared angrily at each other. Suddenly, Willow clutched her stomach and doubled over in pain, effectively ending their stare-off.

"Willow, what is it?" Giles asked, glad to have something other than Buffy to focus on.

"I...I felt something...something evil with a huge amount of mystical energy. It hit me like an icy knife in the stomach."

"Now that you mention it, I did feel a coldness settle over the room. You are more in tune with magical forces than I am at this moment, so perhaps the power of it impacted you greater than it did me." Giles mused, offering an explanation.

"But what do you think it is?" Anya asked.

Willow gasped and ran out the front door. Everyone followed her, eager to figure out what was the matter. Outside they saw Willow standing in the front yard, staring up at the sky. Above her in the distance, a mystical convergence was forming, getting larger by the second. Out of it was pouring crackling energy as well as large, shadowy looking creatures.

"We're too late," Willow whispered.


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: **Once again, I'm sorry for how long it takes me to update. I seem to go in phases, and there are times when I completely forget about fanfic (reading or writing it). Thanks to everyone who nagged me to update. It really does help!

* * *

"Dawnie, Dawnie, Dawnie," Glory said as she paced back in forth in front of the frightened girl tied up on the ground. "You gave me quite a scare. I was beginning to think I wouldn't find you, my precious Key. Tonight's the night, you know...the night the portal has to be opened. Just think...if you had stayed hidden for just twelve more hours, we would've missed our chance. But no worries...Glory is here now, baby."

Glory absentmindedly stroked Dawn's head while Dawn struggled against her bonds and let out a muffled whimper against her gag.

"What was that honey?" Glory asked, false concern coloring her voice. Dawn just stared at her with an angry look, and Glory muttered to herself, "Oh yeah, I forgot...gag." With a violent pull, Glory tore away the cloth tied over Dawn's mouth. "Now what did you want to say, Dawnie? A final request, perhaps?"

"Please don't do this..." Dawn begged. "It…it's not so bad here on Earth, once you get used to it. Wouldn't you rather just stay here and _not _kill anybody?" Dawn asked in a desperate attempt to save her life.

"But Dawnie," Glory said in a placating voice, "this isn't my _home_. You can't blame a girl for wanting to go home, can you? And if I have to destroy everything in every _fucking_ universe to do it, well, that's life, ain't it?"

For a second, Dawn's eyes showed a hint of compassion as she pondered what it would be like to have no home, but any sympathy was lost once Glory began rambling about destroying all she held dear. "You know, it doesn't matter what you do," Dawn said defiantly. "Buffy knows you took me. She will come and find me, and then you will be sorry you ever even _thought_ about hurting me."

"The Slayer?" Glory laughed. "I wouldn't be surprised if she is still curled up on her bed wondering what hit her...maybe even aching for a little more. You're probably the last thing on her mind right about now."

"What are you talking about?" Dawn asked, a confused look on her face.

"I'll tell you when you're older," Glory smirked. "Oh wait...you aren't going to _get_ any older. But you do have a point. We should probably get started before any of your little friends try to come and play hero. Normally, I'd like to have a few days with you. Do the ritual cleansing, chanting and all that jazz, but we both know that's all for show. Really, all that matters is that you bleed. You can do that for your friend Glory, right? At least I got you into the ritual gown. Just because I'm a hellgod doesn't mean I don't have _some_ sense of propriety, you know?"

Dawn looked down and for the first time noticed that she wasn't wearing her own clothing. "You undressed me?" she asked, a horrified look on her face.

"You were already undressed when I got to you, honey. I just had to _add_ clothing. Quite the naughty girl you've been."

Dawn blushed before staring at Glory with indignation in her eyes. "You know, for someone who keeps insisting that I am some mystical Key, you seem to forget the fact that I am thousands of years old. I think that qualifies me to do whatever the heck I like, thank you very much."

"Awww…you're so cute when you try to act all grown-up," Glory cooed. "But, you've got me all wrong, Dawnie. I don't care if you've fucked every male on this disgusting planet. That's one of the few tolerable pastimes on this forsaken rock. But it was very naughty of you to try to deprive me of any of your blood. From the look of that hickey on your neck, I'd say you've been quite the bad girl...letting your vampire boy toy feed from you, when you know very well that your blood belongs to me."

"My blood belongs to Spike more than it will ever belong to you, you...you...psycho!"

"Spike? Is that really the vampire's name? How..._pet-like_ of him. Here, Spike...here, Spike. C'mon...come out boy," Glory cooed in a sing-song voice as she paced around the room looking for Spike.

"Oh, that's right...I knocked him out. I almost forgot," Glory said absentmindedly. She walked over to the corner where she'd thrown him and picked him up. "Wake up, you stupid vampire," she said as she shook him roughly. "Dammit...I wouldn't have gone to all the trouble of knocking you unconscious if I'd known it would take this much effort to wake you up."

Glory threw Spike to the ground at Dawn's feet and then glared at Dawn. "Make him wake up," Glory said petulantly.

"I...I can't."

Glory slapped Dawn across the face and yanked her head back by her hair. "Make him wake up!"

"Spike!" Dawn screamed, fear and panic evident in her voice.

Groggily, Spike opened his eyes. "Dawn," he mumbled, "did ya happen to catch the number of the truck that hit me, luv? Why don't you come down here and kiss it all better, there's a girl," Spike rambled, his eyes still bleary and unfocused.

"Um, Spike...now's _not_ the time," Dawn said nervously.

"Wakey wakey, Spike," Glory smiled as she knelt down and straddled the near-unconscious vampire.

"Dawn, what's the she-bitch of hell doing here?" Spike asked in a dazed state.

"You know, I used to think you vampires were all useless," she murmured as she ran her hands up and down Spike's chest, "but you are different. I can smell it all over you," she said, scratching his neck and drawing blood, slowly leaning over and licking him. "You taste like my Key."

"Get off of him!" Dawn yelled. "Spike has nothing to do with this. It's me you want. Just leave him out of it!"

Glory crawled off of Spike and stormed angrily over to Dawn. "You seem to be forgetting something, Dawnie. _I_ am the goddess. Which means _I_ get to call the shots around here, not you. You know what? I'm sick of you humans and your irreverent attitude. I should be _worshipped_ and _feared_, not talked down to. I've had enough bonding time. I say it's time to start this little ritual, don't you?"

Spike lunged at Glory, trying in vain to stop her. Without batting an eye, Glory gave him a swift punch to the face, effectively incapacitating him once more before she flung him over her shoulder. Then she grabbed Dawn by her bound wrists and dragged her up to the top of the tower they were in. Tossing Spike to the floor, she turned her attention to the struggling girl she had hold of.

"Glory, stop this. Glory, no!" Dawn screamed as Glory ripped her ropes from her and bound her with shackles.

"Now what was it that man told me?" Glory mused. "Oh yes, that's right...shallow cuts...that way you'll bleed longer." Glory pulled out a knife and began cutting Dawn, working her way from the top down.

"Such a pretty neck," Glory purred as she pressed the blade into Dawn's skin. "What a pale stomach." Two more cuts slashed into Dawn's side. "And these long legs." The sting of the blade cut across the tops of Dawn's thighs. "And one more for good measure. Let your vampire remember this when he thinks about touching my precious Key," Glory said as she slammed the knife deep between Dawn's legs. "You belong to _me_," Glory whispered.

Dawn screamed as the knife entered her, violating her most private parts. Pain coursed through her, and through her sobs, she began to heave as if she would throw up.

"Don't cry, Dawnie," Glory cooed, petting the head of the trembling girl. "It will all be over soon." She turned towards Spike then, with a gleeful look in her eye. "Oh yes, and now for the vampire." She hauled him to his feet and bound him in chains as well. "You vampires heal quickly, don't you?" She asked herself. "To hell with shallow cuts." Rapidly, she rammed the knife into Spikes torso several times in succession.

Spike came back to full consciousness with a roar. "Bloody hell!" he screamed as blood began to pour from his stomach.

Glory stood at the edge of the platform and looked down. She could already see the portal opening, glowing and swirling as Dawn's blood fell down in drips. The vampire's blood was also having an effect. Most of it fell through the mass below, but small, glowing droplets separated from the blackish liquid that was his natural blood, adding themselves to the ever-growing opening. "It has begun," Glory said with an awe-filled voice. Then turning, she looked at the hunched over forms of Spike and Dawn, a grin on her face. "You two have fun now, ya hear? I've got things to do, portals to defend," she said chipperly as she went back inside.

Dawn moaned in pain, tears streaming down her face. "Spike, help me," she gasped, her throat hoarse from screaming. "It hurts...it hurts so much!"

Spike struggled violently against his restraints, wanting with everything in him to tear Glory limb from limb for what she did to Dawn. He strained with all of his might, but he was too weak to get loose, and growing weaker by the second. His eyes filled with intense pain as he looked at Dawn. "I can't break free, luv. I can't get to you."

Spike had already stretched himself to the limit trying to get closer to Dawn, his chains pulled taught behind him. Seeing that Spike could get no closer, Dawn began to limp forward slightly, as far as the chains would allow, then, steeling herself against the pain in her wrists, she also leaned forward until she could pull no more. The end result, with both their arms pulled harshly behind their backs, was an inverted V-shape, allowing for the slightest contact at their heads.

"What are you doing, Nibblet?" Spike murmured, brushing his lips against Dawn's. "This has got to be hurting you more than it's hurting me. I'm a big, bad vampire, and I find this position bloody uncomfortable to say the least."

"If I am going to die, Spike, let it be on my own terms," Dawn said fiercely, pain evident in her voice. "If kissing you is the last thing I do, then death can't be all bad, can it?"

"Don't say such things, pet. You're NOT going to die," Spike whispered vehemently. He stretched himself further, ignoring the sickening pop of his shoulders dislocating, and began to kiss Dawn savagely. His arms struggled to free themselves, to be able to hold Dawn, to no avail.

Suddenly, Dawn felt a coppery substance flood her mouth. She gasped in surprise and looked at Spike with questioning eyes. "I might not be able to turn you," he said roughly, "but it doesn't mean I can't help with the pain. Drink from me, Dawn."

Dawn gasped at the implications of the statement. Without reservation, she allowed Spike's mouth to find hers again. She felt his fangs pierce his bottom lip, and she sucked hungrily at the wound, feeding off him as he had fed off her earlier. Spike moaned, causing Dawn's skin to vibrate where they were touching. Slowly, Dawn began to feel an inward tug, as if something were being pulled out of her. She sighed deeply as the pain started to flow out of her as Spike's blood flowed in, not realizing that Spike was actually using their bond to take all of her pain into himself. The strange peace she felt was in sharp contrast to her surroundings, a gateway to hell being formed in mid-air beneath her, and unbeknownst to her, a fierce battle raging below in the lower levels of the building.


	24. Chapter 24

"Buffy, look out!" Xander shouted.

With cat-like reflexes, Buffy dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the crossbow bolt that had been aimed for her head. With rage in her eyes, she stormed over to where Glory's minion was standing, ripping the crossbow out of his hands and bashing him across the face with it, causing him to fall to the ground, unconscious.

Rage drove the band of friends, and they fought seamlessly, side by side, making short work out of all of Glory's minions. Soon the only obstacle between them and Dawn was the hellgod herself.

"Come back for more, have you Slayer?" Glory smirked, staring at the enraged Slayer before her. "I know how it must feel. I mean, I am irresistible."

"I guess if you go for the whole psychobitch, creature from hell thing. But let's be honest...you're really not my type."

"Tsk, tsk, Slayer. You should be nicer when talking to a being who is supremely powerful. But I guess when you are about to die, it's natural to be a bit testy. Now who should I kill first?" Glory mused. "I could take out your friends first, let you suffer before I kill you. But which one? The loyal but useless sidekick...the pathetic little witch, or the ever-protective Watcher? I bet your Watcher would make a yummy meal, all that knowledge stored up in his head. So many choices. What to do...what to do? Or we could just skip all the foreplay and I could go right to the killing you. What do you think?"

"Shut up, Glory. The only thing I've come here for is to watch you die," Buffy growled.

"Oh get over yourself. You might be the Slayer, but you are human. I am a goddess. That means I am im-MOR-tal. I _can't die_," Glory said in a patronizing tone, as if she were explaining it to a young child.

"We'll just see about that," Buffy commented, brandishing her giant weapon, the hammer of Thor, as she began to advance. It had been a brilliant find on Giles' part. After all, what better to fight a goddess than the weapon of a god?

Willow held her hand out, preventing Buffy from moving forward. "No. Me first," she said in a commanding voice. An unnatural wind swirled around her as she focused her power. Her black eyes filled with malice as she screamed, sending forth a giant beam of electricity directly into Glory.

Glory shrieked as the energy raced through her. When is stopped, smoke was curling in tendrils from off her body. "You know, that _almost_ hurt. But look what you did to my hair! It's all frizzy now. You're going to pay for that, witch!"

Glory started to move to attack Willow. "Thicken," Willow commanded, her hand pointing towards Glory. Immediately, the hellgod was surrounding by an invisible barrier, binding her in place. "She's all yours Buffy," Willow said with a nod of her head.

Buffy strode forward, swinging the hammer with all her might. It connected with the side of Glory's head with a sickening crack. Over and over again, Buffy smashed the hammer against Glory, pummeling her without mercy. Eventually, Glory managed to break free of Willow's spell, only to fall to the ground, unable to stand.

Bloody wounds covered Glory's body, and she looked up at Buffy with an incredulous look on her face. "This...this can't be happening to me! I'm a goddess. I'm supposed to be indestructible!"

"Weapon of the gods to defeat a hellgod...seems logical enough to me," Buffy responded, lifting up her hammer with a smirk. Taking no pity on Glory in her weakened state, Buffy smashed the hammer against her head once again, and Glory collapsed. Once unconscious, she quickly morphed back into her mortal half, Ben.

"Oh my God! Glory is Ben!" Xander exclaimed.

Willow sighed, "Yes, we've been through this already, Xander. About a dozen times at least," she said with a slight smile, trying to hide the frustration she felt that her spell had refused to penetrate his thick skull.

"You mean you knew, and you didn't tell me?" he asked.

"Well, I guess the cat is out of the bag now," Willow responded in a placating tone.

"What does this all mean?" he pondered, his mind trying to force itself to remember the connections that had already been made before.

"It means that Glory is vulnerable now," Giles said quietly.

Buffy knelt next to the prone form of Ben on the ground. "I know what I have to do," she said softly, placing her hand on his throat. At that moment, Ben's eyes opened with a snap.

"Buffy!" he exclaimed nervously. "Where are we...what...what are you doing?"

"I know that you and Glory are the same being, Ben," Buffy said softly. "I...I can't let you hurt anyone else."

Ben's face quickly shifted from false confusion to outraged panic. If Buffy knew of his and Glory's connection, there was no sense in playing dumb.

"_I _haven't hurt anyone, Buffy! It was Glory who was all about the killing and opening passages to hell. I just wanted to live a normal life. Just because she is inside of me doesn't mean that we are the same person!"

"I'm so sorry, Ben..."

"Is this how you treat all your lovers?" Ben asked spitefully.

Buffy flinched as a collective gasp went up throughout the room. Only Willow had been privy to the dirty little secret that had revealed Glory's alter ego. Everyone else had heard a convenient cover-up. "Is what he says true, Buffy?" Giles cautiously asked, trying to control the sudden swell of anger and jealousy flooding his heart.

Buffy nodded, cringing with the memory of their night together, but also recalling a past memory, the memory of Angel, and how much it had hurt to have to betray him for a higher cause.

"You won't be the first lover I've sent to hell," she said coldly.

"So that's it? You just use me? Tell me how much you need me to take the pain away as you screw me into the ground. Then cast me aside when things don't turn out exactly like you thought they would. You can't just kill me because things didn't go the way you wanted! No matter what is inside me, I'm still a human being! Doesn't that matter? You can't do this Buffy!" Ben exclaimed, desperation cracking his voice.

Tears slid down Buffy's face as her grip on Ben's throat faltered. Willow stepped forward and gently pulled her hand away. "You're right, Ben. Buffy can't kill you...but I can."

"What did I ever do to you?" Ben asked, true fear creeping into his heart as he looked into Willow's bottomless, black eyes.

"What did you do to me?" Willow screamed as she grabbed him by the throat and picked him up with one arm, dangling him in front of her. "You only took the ONE thing that was pure and good in my life and snapped her like a twig."

"It wasn't me!" he gasped. "Glory and I are NOT the same person!"

"I don't care," Willow said with an icy deadness to her voice, no sympathy showing in her black eyes.

"Please, I...I want to live," Ben begged.

"So did Tara," Willow whispered as she snapped his neck.

"Oh my God, Willow!" Buffy cried, a wave of guilt flooding her heart now that the deed was done. "What have you done? _He_ wasn't the one who killed Tara. You..._we_...had no right."

"It doesn't matter," Willow said flatly. "It's done. Now go find your sister. See if there is some way to stop this all before it's too late."

"Dawn!" Buffy gasped, suddenly realizing how much time she'd wasted. With a start, she raced to the roof, nearly sobbing at the sight that greeted her. Dawn and Spike were both unconscious, kneeling on the ground with their arms chained behind their backs and foreheads touching. Beneath them, a swirling cloud of malignant energy was growing increasingly larger as their blood fell, feeding the portal. Buffy raced over to Dawn and quickly snapped the chains that were binding her. As an afterthought, she also reached over and freed Spike before gently shaking her sister.

"Dawn, honey. You have to wake up. Please, Dawn...wake up!"

Dawn blearily opened her eyes. "Buffy?" she said weakly. "Did we win?"

"Yes, honey, we won. We won," Buffy murmured as she cradled Dawn in her lap, stroking her hair lovingly.

For a moment, Dawn snuggled peacefully in Buffy's lap, enjoying a moment of calm. Then suddenly she jerked upright as she abruptly became aware of her surroundings once more. "Oh my God, Buffy! The portal!" She staggered to her feet with a wild look in her eyes. "I...I know what I have to do," she said, a resigned tone coloring her voice as she began to back slowly towards the edge of the platform she was on.

"Dawn," Buffy asked, fear and nervousness in her voice, "what do you think you are doing?"

"I have to jump, Buffy. It's the only way," Dawn said firmly, even though fear was coursing through her.

"No Dawn, you can't! There has to be some other way. I refuse to let you die! Let me go...let me go in your place," Buffy cried, tears streaming down her face.

"Buffy," Dawn said softly, "your destiny is to be the Slayer, to protect mankind. This...this is _my_ destiny. It's the only way. Don't you think the survival of the whole world is more important than someone who's not really human anyway?"

"Don't you say that! You are as human as anyone else on this planet, and more importantly, you're my sister. What good is protecting the whole world if I can't even protect my family?" Buffy sobbed, pulling Dawn into a tight embrace. They stayed that way for several long moments until, finally, Buffy pulled away. With a firm nod, Buffy stepped back, releasing her sister to her fate. Dawn stepped to the edge of the tower, looking down into the portal below. Just as she was about to jump, she heard a strangled shout from behind her.

"Dawn!" Spike cried, struggling to regain full consciousness in time to stop her. Too unsteady to stand, he began to crawl towards her.

A tear slipped down Dawn's cheek. "Goodbye, Spike," she said softly as she turned and jumped off the edge of the building.

"No!!!" Spike howled, watching her slip over the side. Without a second's thought, he leapt over the edge after her. He managed to grab her arm and pull her next to him as they fell, hoping to shield her from most of the damage when they hit the ground. He clung to her tightly as their bodies entered the swirling mass of energy below. Spike felt as though he were being torn apart from the inside out. Every fiber of his being screamed in pain, yet he continued to cling to Dawn with all of his strength. Try as he might though, he could not hold on to her. Like trying to hold on to a beam of light, she seemed to have no substance. Slowly she began to dissolve, passing through his grip rather than slipping from it. Spike continued to fall rapidly and hit the ground with a sick thud. He did not need to look up into the sky to know what had happened. He could feel it inside of him. Their bond, her blood, every part of Dawn that had been in him had disappeared. Spike roared from the anguish of it.

She was gone.


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N:** As always, thanks to everyone who reviewed and encouraged me to keep writing. It seems like the closer I get to the end of this fic, the harder it is to come up with the energy to write. But I promise I will see it through to the end. Oh, and sorry for those of you who thought the last chapter _was_ the end…as you can probably tell, I'm overly fond of cliff hangers. You can be sure that when this fic is truly over, I will say so clearly, with much rejoicing.

As for this chapter, this is where things start to get slightly weird. This chapter also crosses over with the Angel story arc set in Pylea. If you've never watched Angel, or just don't remember the episodes, you may want to read the episode outlines on Wikipedia for _Over the Rainbow_, _Through the Looking Glass_, and _There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb_.

* * *

Dawn screamed as Spike was torn from her. Cling as she might, she could not keep him with her. Rather than slipping from his grasp, she passed entirely _through_ him, and as she did so, all of her essence was gathered back to her. Spike plummeted past her, and for the first time in months, Dawn was alone, both physically and mentally. Her heart burned with the pain of it. For a moment she hung suspended in mid-air, reaching out for the mangled form of Spike as he hit the ground. Then, without warning, a strange sort of calm settled over her.

Truly like a Key fitting into a lock, Dawn experienced the sensation of sliding into place, fitting perfectly somewhere for perhaps the first time ever in her brief existence as a sentient being. Understanding filled her, and she realized the subtle wisdom the monks had displayed in making her human. For years on end her essence had been forced into inanimate objects, her power being governed by the whims of others, usually to evil ends. Finally, though, her power was matched with a form capable of thought, and _she_ had control, as it was meant to be, as it _could_ have been eons ago if her keepers had only realized sooner.

Although physically she was still suspended in the midst of a swirling mass of energy, mentally she shaped the chaos around her, forming the image of a long corridor filled with many doors. Inside the passages of her own mind, she walked, letting door after door pass her by. Dawn did not know how long she traveled down the seemingly endless hall. Time had no meaning in this place. There was some alien force driving her, not allowing her to rest until she had found the proper door.

_Yes, that one_, a silent voice seemed to whisper as Dawn finally paused in front of a nondescript wooden door, one of many that filled the passageway.

To the naked eye, this door was no different than the rest, but she was drawn to this one. Dawn knew with an uncanny certainty that this particular door _had_ to be the first step of her journey if she ever wanted to make sense of the madness she had quite literally thrown herself into. Steeling herself against the fear and doubt swirling around in the back of her mind, Dawn reached out for the door and stepped through.

The energy around her coalesced, drawing itself together until it was all focused on the tiny figure of Dawn. Then with a starburst-like blast, Dawn felt herself being propelled forward. She landed hard on the ground and rolled quite a ways until a tree abruptly stopped her forward progress.

"Ugh..." Dawn moaned. "I'm gonna have to work on those landings." Slowly, she got up off the ground, moving stiffly from her rough fall. It took her a few moments to realize, however, that she wasn't in nearly as much pain as she should have been. The few minor cuts from the tree were her _only_ injuries. All of the damage Glory had inflicted had vanished once Dawn fell through the portal. Apparently the few moments she spent as pure energy while transitioning through dimensions acted like a reset for her body's natural state. That could certainly come in handy.

After she finally got over the shock of her miraculous healing, Dawn absentmindedly brushed off bits of stray dirt and grass and began to survey her new surroundings. In appearance, the place looked much like a forest on Earth, but something about the sunlight was slightly off, giving the landscape an alien glow.

"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," Dawn muttered to herself. She looked around warily, but she appeared to be alone. Then in the distance, Dawn heard the sounds of people arguing, and she cautiously inched her way closer to see what was happening.

"You ungrateful, traitor of a son!" an irate, green-skinned woman screamed. "May the stench of the dunghill never leave you!"

"Thanks, mom...love you too," a nervous-looking man of equally green skin replied.

"If I ever see your face again, I will mutilate your corpse myself. Begone! Begone!" she screeched, hurling metal pots and pans at him as he slowly backed away.

"You know, look at the time. I think I'll be going now. Ah, no need for a tearful goodbye. Wouldn't want to cause a scene..." the man said hurriedly before turning around and running, ducking to dodge the various things being thrown at him.

Dawn stared at the exchange with mute fascination, not realizing until it was too late that she was directly in the path of the fleeing man. Once again, Dawn found herself abruptly meeting the ground as the man collided with her at full speed.

"You and I have got to stop meeting like this," Dawn sighed.

"Well 'hello' to you too. Although to be honest, I don't think I've had the pleasure. I usually remember meeting someone as pretty as you."

"Oh, sorry," Dawn muttered, blushing furiously. "I...um...I was talking to the ground."

"Rough day, I take it?"

"You don't know the half of it," Dawn sighed.

The man got up, brushing himself off and extending a hand to Dawn. "Well, I am Lorne...welcome to Pylea," he said as he helped Dawn off the ground. "Pleased to make your acquaintance..." His tone became decidedly distracted the moment he touched Dawn's hand. He gave her a quizzical look. "_Have_ we met? Your aura...it's so familiar..."

"M...my aura?" Dawn asked, perplexed.

"Oh...sorry. That's kind of my thing...I read people, get little snippets of their future, glimpse who they are on the inside. All that jazz. And boy am I picking up some vibes from you. You wouldn't mind telling me who you are, would you?"

"Um...it's sort of a long story, and I don't really understand it all myself, but I guess I can start with something easy. My name is Dawn Summers, and I'm..."

"Summers, did you say?" Lorne asked, interrupting her. "You wouldn't happen to know a Buffy Summers, would you?"

"Yeah," Dawn said dejectedly, wondering why even in a different dimension it was always Buffy that got the attention. "That's my sister...the Chosen One destined to protect the world against evil... yada yada yada. But I guess you already knew that, huh?"

"Yes...I've heard of her...I kind of help out her ex from time to time. You wouldn't _believe_ the emotional hang-ups that come along with a vampire in love with a Slayer. Boy has the universe got a sense of humor."

"Wait...by 'her ex' do you mean Angel?" Dawn asked excitedly.

"Yeah, he's actually not too far from here, if you'd like to see him," Lorne replied.

A look of frustration crossed Dawn's face. "It must not have worked then...I thought for certain we weren't on Earth anymore."

"Oh, sweat pea, we're definitely _not_ on Earth. There is no place on Earth that could be as musically challenged as the not-quite-so-fair Pylea. I'm guessing this wasn't quite the destination you had in mind. This isn't exactly the most human-friendly dimension in the universe. How did you get here, anyway?"

"Well, it's sort of complicated..."

"You're telling me. You do realize that technically, you shouldn't exist. The Slayer doesn't _have_ a sister..."

"Um, yeah...that's kind of the complicated part of the story," Dawn said nervously, not quite certain how to proceed.

"You know, maybe I shouldn't take you to Angel after all. See, Angel and company, myself included, are all set for a one-way trip back to Earth, and knowing him, the moment he sees you, he'll go into super-protector mode and drag you along with us. But something tells me you aren't ready to go back to Earth yet...and you might not be ready for a long time."

Dawn nodded in resignation. She'd really love to see Angel, or any familiar face really, but she knew deep down that seeing him would not be for the best, for all the reasons Lorne mentioned, as well as one other...she still had Spike's scent all over her. That _certainly_ wouldn't go over well with Angel. "So..." Dawn said, a glimmer of hope in her voice, "since you can see the future and all...do you have any idea what _is_ going to happen to me?"

"Well, things are still kind of murky. This isn't an exact science, you know. Maybe you could sing a little ditty for me...help to clear things up a bit."

"You...you want me to sing?" Dawn asked in surprise.

"Just humor me, kiddo. When people sing, it sort of draws back the curtains on the window of their future...helps me get a better look. Oh, don't you look at me in that tone of voice...just give it a try."

Dawn was indeed looking at Lorne with a dubious expression on her face, but she figured being asked to sing wasn't quite as traumatic other things she could be faced with, so she racked her brain for an appropriate song. With a smirk, she decided on a rather fitting song, given her circumstances. Tentatively she began to sing out the lyrics: "First I was afraid, I was petrified..."

Lorne listened intensely for a moment before clapping his hands and smiling. "You sing it sista!" he exclaimed with glee. "C'mon," he said, putting his arm around her shoulder, "let's walk and talk. I have someone I think you should meet."

Dawn began to follow Lorne, looking up at him expectantly. "So...what did you see?"

"Well, I know things seem really rough right now, but believe it or not, you _will_ survive, and for quite some time at that. The Powers That Be are quite happy to have a Key with a mind of her own. From what I can tell, the Key has never had the ability to learn before, and they want to take full advantage of this opportunity...they want to give you an education, so to speak."

"What exactly does that mean?" Dawn asked.

"Well, it means you are in for a long ride, sweat pea. From what I saw, you are going to be making a pit stop at every dimension in existence. In each one, you'll have to learn something specific before you can move on. Kind of like cosmic kindergarten."

"But that will take years! To visit every dimension...that could take a lifetime!" Dawn gasped.

"Hundreds of lifetimes, to be precise. I wasn't kidding when I said you were in it for the long haul. You're gonna be around for a looooong time. You might feel like you're just some teenage kid, but behind that youthful exterior lies something that has been around for eons and will be around for quite a few more. To sum it up...you're practically immortal. The power that's inside you will keep you alive far longer than you could ever imagine, but even with all that mystical energy sustaining you, eventually your human body will wear out, so you _are_ on a time schedule. You need to complete your journey before your body gives out."

"Well what's the point of learning all this stuff if I'm just going to die in the end?"

"You'll never die in the literal sense of the word, like I said...practically immortal... but you will be reborn, like a veritable phoenix rising from the ashes. I don't know all the details...I'm good, but not that good...but I get the sense that everything is going to come full circle somehow. This part is real fuzzy, but I think if you reach the end in time, you will find a receptacle for your knowledge, something that can hold it all for you while you regenerate, and return it at the appropriate time, enabling you to be a powerful force in the fight against evil."

"Wow..." Dawn said, sort of stunned by all the information being dumped in her lap.

"I must say, when you decided to step out of your sister's shadow, you weren't kidding around!"

Dawn looked stricken for a moment as a tear slowly slid down her face. "My sister...Spike...everyone...am I ever going to see them again?"

"I can't give you any guarantees, but I think you might. Time is kind of screwy, especially in demon dimensions. If you learn your stuff, you might be able to swing something."

"What if I don't want to go on some big, epic journey? Can't I…can't I just go back to Earth with you, hop a bus to Sunnydale and skip straight to the happily ever after?"

Lorne paused for a moment, unsure of how to answer. "I can't say whether or not the Powers would allow you to do that. We could try to take you with us, and it might work, or we might all get carried along with you on your journey, and you'd get to watch us drop off one by one as we die of old age and you continue to live on. But let's say the Powers are feeling uncharacteristically generous, and we get back to Earth without a hitch, would you really want to go back to being plain old Dawn Summers, kid sister to the Slayer? Or do you want to actually do some good with the power you've been given. You know the drill. Great power…great responsibility…yadda yadda yadda."

"I think I finally understand how Buffy feels," Dawn said softly. "One day, she was an ordinary teenager with nothing but cheerleading and boys to worry about. Then 'wham', she gets hit with a sacred duty and the weight of the world is suddenly on her shoulders. And she couldn't run from it, 'cause how can you run from yourself?"

"So, does this mean you want to give it a try…you're willing to make the sacrifice?"

"I don't think I have much choice," Dawn replied quietly.

"Enough talk then," Lorne replied with forced cheerfulness. "I think it's about time I direct you to the first step of your epic journey." As he said this, a town came into view with a tremendous castle in the center, their destination.

"How can you know everything I'm supposed to do just from me singing a botched version of some stupid song?" Dawn asked, hoping against hope that maybe there was some loophole that would get her out of a journey that would keep her away from home for years on end.

"To be honest with you, the Powers usually aren't so forthcoming with their information. They are big on vague images...something about letting us mortals figure things out on our own, but I guess they figure you are important enough that they don't want anything to be screwed up. I have a feeling I was _meant_ to meet you...to help guide you along the way."

"Yeah, I guess," Dawn said softly, silently resigning herself to her fate. "So, where are we going, anyway?"

"Ah yes, that is the question of the day, isn't it? Well, we are just about there," Lorne said as they neared the outskirts of the town. He walked directly up the main street and soon they were entering the castle. Inside, the guards treated him with much more respect than they had during his prior visit, allowing them to walk to the throne room without harassment, and if any of them were surprised to see the previously decapitated demon suddenly whole and walking among them again, they made no comment.

Sitting on the throne was a rather handsome looking, yet somewhat dejected, young man. Upon seeing Lorne, he rose from his seat and clasped the demon's forearm in friendship. "Lorne, my noble friend! It is an honor to see you again! I had thought you gone, along with the Princess Cordelia, back to the dimension called Earth. Does this mean that my Princess has reconsidered?"

"No, I'm afraid not, big guy. Cordelia is still planning on going back to Earth. And so am I, as a matter of fact. I just decided to make one last pit stop, to see if I could patch things up with my family."

"Your head is still attached to your body. Things must have gone well!" he said enthusiastically.

"Um, not quite," Lorne said nervously.

"But if you have completed the visit with your family, what explains your continued presence in this dimension?"

"Well, as the Fates would have it, I ran into another person from Earth wandering around the wilds of Pylea. This place seems to be rather popular these days. May I present to you, Dawn Summers!" he said with a flourish, ushering Dawn in front of him.

"A most noble lady, I am sure, to have such an esteemed escort, and more beauteous than the Dawn that is her namesake," the man said as he knelt to kiss Dawn's hand.

"Dawn, I'd like you to meet the Groosalugg, or Groo, as we affectionately like to call him."

"Um, hi...pleased to make your acquaintance?" she said nervously, attempting a curtsy in the tatters of the gown Glory had given her.

"Is this fair creature to be my new Princess? I will mourn the loss of the wise Cordelia, but if the gods will it that this maiden be my new companion, I will accept her with gladness!"

"Whoa...the Powers want me to be a Princess? That's kind of cool!" Dawn said with reserved enthusiasm. For a moment she was excited, but then a frown wrinkled her brow. "What a second...from what I know, the Powers aren't really into giving people happily ever after. Being a Princess in a castle complete with the handsome Prince is too good to be true...what's the catch?"

"Well..." Lorne began, "Pylea is in the midst of a civil war of sorts. For hundreds of years, humans have been nothing but slaves to the demons of Pylea...affectionately known as cows to be precise...and you know Cordelia...you do know her, right? Well anyway, she just had to go and throw a wrench into the system. Now Groo, the fearless leader here, has the job of keeping everyone in line. I'm guessing the Powers want you to tag along and see what you can pick up."

"Will you consent to be my consort, oh fair one?" Groo asked, kneeling before Dawn.

"Consort? Does that mean what I think it means?" Dawn asked Lorne, a hint of panic tingeing her voice.

"I'm certain Groo here will be quite the gentleman... if that's really what you want, but you might want to consider the fact that you are going to be away from home for a _very_ long time. Technically, you are older than the hills, which qualifies you as a consenting adult. That means you get to make up your own mind."

"But...but what about Spike?" Dawn asked, both outraged and somewhat tearful. Even if she would never see him again, it was way too soon for her to start looking for a new love.

"Dawn, honey, I'm not telling you to do anything. I'm just giving you your options. I can't guarantee this Spike guy will be alive when you get home. Heck, I can't even guarantee that you'll make it home. You might want to snatch some happiness where you can get it. I can tell you that as much as I hate this place, there are a lot of dimensions that are far worse. But in the end, only you can decide what to do along your journey. As much as I hate clichés, I'd have to say just go with your heart."

"I...I guess we can see how it goes," Dawn said shyly, giving Groo a tremulous smile. "But I'm not promising anything!"

"I am most pleased!" the Groosalugg exclaimed, embracing Dawn tightly. "I vow to protect you with my life!" Groo then turned to Lorne and clasped his forearm fiercely. "And thank you my friend, for returning to me some of the joy that was lost at the departure of Princess Cordelia!"

"Sure, anytime, big guy," Lorne said, wincing slightly at the man's strong grip. "But I should probably be off now, before Angel sends out a search party. Will you be alright, Dawn?"

"I hope so," she said bravely. For a second she stood there, prepared to just wave and let Lorne walk away, but her resolve crumbled, and she rushed into his arms, hugging him fiercely. "I...I'm scared," she admitted.

"I know you're scared, sweetie, but don't worry...you come from tough stock. I know you'll make it."

"You really think so?"

"Yes...yes I do," Lorne said confidently.

"Then go on, get out of here," Dawn said, making shooing motions with her hands. "How in the world am I supposed to learn anything with you hovering around."

Lorne chuckled and gave a small wave. "You take care, ya hear. If the Fates aren't too unkind, hopefully we'll meet up again some day."

"It's a date," Dawn said with forced resolve, trying not to focus on the fact that she was now virtually on her own. She stood and stared until Lorne was completely out of sight before turning to Groo and looking up at him with a small smile.

"So...now what?"


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N: **Real life has be very, VERY busy, so I apologize for the long delay in getting the next chapter up. I had some insomnia tonight, so I figured I'd use the time I'd normally spend sleeping on finally updating this fic (because I certainly don't have any time to spare during the day). It's getting close to the end. There will probably only be a handful of chapters after this one. Feel free to pester me if it's been a while between updates. It honestly does help!

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Dawn stared at the door in front of her with a quiet sort of resignation. For ages she had traveled down this imaginary corridor that her mind had created, hoping that each door was her last. She could still remember emerging from that first door as if it were yesterday, although in actuality lifetimes had passed since then. In many ways, that first one had been the hardest, mostly because she did not know what it would be that would release her from the dimension she was in, or if she would even be released at all. She had spent years in Pylea, standing quietly by the Groosalugg as they successfully fought their way through a civil war and established a new world order.

But the politics of governing had not been what she was meant to gain from that Dimension. Her lesson was much harder than that. She had finally been released on the day that Groo proposed...and she had refused. His speech still rang clear in her ears:

"My Princess...my beautiful Dawn. For years now, you have stood by my side. Together we have learned to rule, and in all ways have I tried to respect you. The people already acknowledge you as their Queen, but they wonder why their benevolent rulers have not yet produced an heir. I have honored your request to remain...just friends...as you put it, respecting your belief that once you had accomplished some hidden mission, you would be pulled from my side. You have learned much, but still you remain with me. I ask now that you consider the possibility that the wise Lorne may have been mistaken in his prediction of your future, and that you content yourself with making Pylea the home of your heart as well as your body. Believe me when I say that nothing will pull you from my side, my Dawn of the Summer, for I love you and would have you as my bride."

Dawn looked down at the hopeful face of the Groosalugg, who had sunk to his knees before her, and her eyes welled with tears. She had been in Pylea far longer than she ever thought possible, and in the back of her mind was the not so tiny fear that perhaps Groo was right, that she would never leave this place. Lorne had told her to try to grab happiness where she could find it, yet despite their closeness, Dawn did not feel the fire she knew true love brought with it, the fire Spike had ignited inside her. She had only known Spike...truly known him...for a few short months, yet the passion she had felt with him was still enough to make her breath quicken every time he entered her thoughts. In all the years she had known Groo, she had never felt anything even approaching that depth of feeling for him. And she would not settle for less. It would not be fair to her or to Groo, who deserved so much better than a half-hearted marriage founded in lukewarm love. He deserved someone who would love him completely, without the specter of a past lover ever-present, and that was not her. Perhaps, someday, another person would light a fire in her heart, and she would consider another besides Spike, but deep down she doubted that day would ever come.

So it was with a tearful countenance that Dawn gently declined Groo's proposal of marriage. She bent down and kissed his forehead, and he closed his eyes in pain as tears of his own ran down his face. When he opened his eyes again, it was to the shimmering echo of Dawn as she faded from his presence, gone at last from his dimension as she had sworn would be the case. A sad resignation gripped his heart as he realized his one-sided love would never have been enough to hold Dawn to him. He rose with the dignity that befitted a king. He had a nation to rule, and he swore that his people would not suffer merely because he did.

Dawn's acceptance of the situation was not nearly so graceful. At first she attempted to rush back through the portal, only to meet an invisible barrier. Then she pounded and screamed at the doorway as it faded to black and eventually disappeared altogether. Her first lesson had been the hardest of all, knowing that no matter who she met and what connections she made, in the end the journey was hers to make alone. She had tried to rationalize her actions, saying that she was being true to her love for Spike, but she knew her lesson went beyond mere romance. The Powers were telling her that she could not afford any emotional ties, not if she was going to accomplish what they had set out for her to do.

It was her willingness to be alone that had triggered her release, but the knowledge of this was almost too much for Dawn to bear. However, the Powers would not let Dawn rush back into Groo's arms, to live even the briefest of moments in denial. Thus they had closed the door to Pylea behind her, as well as the doorways to every other dimension she visited, as soon as her predetermined task had been completed. Only once she had visited every dimension, for they were not infinite, would Dawn realize her full potential as the Key, being able to travel freely amongst them. At times her visits were brief, the simple knowledge that a certain dimension was even in existence being enough to propel her forward. And at times her visits were long, lasting years in duration, but never were they permanent. Always, without fail, she would be ripped from where she was to journey onward to a new place.

The journey had been so long that at times Dawn thought that it literally had no end, that when she had jumped into that portal all those years ago, she had actually died, and this was her Hell, to travel from place to place forever, and never find home. She had traveled so long that her hair and skin were white to the point of translucence from age, yet her face was still eerily youthful, with not a single wrinkle marring its surface, giving truth to what Lorne had said about her body being durable but not everlasting. Dawn could tell that her body was almost spent, yet still she paused. She had become so accustomed to the traveling from door to door, dimension to dimension, that she did not know what to think now that there was only one door left. Her friends and family had certainly faded to dust by now. Even Spike, for all his supposed immortality, had probably not survived this long, given his penchant for violence. The Earth itself might not even exist anymore, for all she knew. With nothing left to go home to, she had no idea what to expect, no clue as to how this story would end, and that uncertainty frightened her like nothing had for years and years now.

Finally, the choice was taken from her. Growing impatient from expending so much energy on a single entity, the Powers that Be flung open the only door remaining to Dawn, and the portal behind it expanded to envelop her. Dawn was past the point of screaming. She merely closed her eyes and accepted what was to come. When she opened them, she appeared to be standing in a Romanesque temple, a stately woman garbed in a toga standing before her. Neither the temple nor the woman truly existed. Just like Dawn's corridor, these were merely metaphors taken from her mind and given form in order to create sense out of a power she otherwise could not even begin to fathom. But the true nature of the place meant nothing to Dawn. She merely wanted to know what was to come next.

She approached the figure with a heedless abandon that was reminiscent of her youth. "I have done what you asked. I have spent _lifetimes_ acquiring knowledge of all the dimensions. If you took every Watcher that ever existed and pooled their knowledge together, it still wouldn't compare to what I have learned. Yet the one thing I have craved to know since I started still eludes me, and that is _why_. Why have I gone through the process of gaining so much power, when the people I cherished and wished to protect the most must be long in their graves by now?"

"Still so young and foolish," the woman mused as she cupped Dawn's face in her hand. "Your friends are not as lost as you might think," she said, tilting Dawn's head towards a new doorway that had just appeared. Through it were the figures of her friends and family, still dirty and bloody from the fight with Glory. Buffy stood sobbing in Giles' arms, tearfully telling him and the others of the sacrifice Dawn had made to close Glory's portal and save them all. Spike stood separate from everyone, looking for all the world as if he had lost a piece of his heart, and along with it, the will to live.

"Why are you showing me these images of the past?" Dawn asked sadly, a confused look on her face.

"This may seem like your distant past, but in this moment, it is also your present, and your future, should you choose to accept it. I offer you the chance to come full circle and begin anew. But to do so you would have to give up your newfound power for a time. This body you possess grows weary. Its time will soon expire. If you take this path, you must become weaker than you have ever been before you can become strong again."

"And the alternative?" Dawn asked.

"To remain here and aid the mortal world from this plane. Here you would live a life without pain or fear. You could wield your power like a surgeon's scalpel, unencumbered by the emotions that cloud the minds of the living."

"Which path would give the greatest help?" Dawn asked.

"Effectiveness is relative to each individual. It is not for me to say what you would consider the best way."

"Can you offer no advice?" Dawn asked in frustration, angered by the stoic calmness the woman showed in the face of such a huge decision.

"The choice is yours alone to make."

"Then I choose to live," Dawn said defiantly. "I'm not quite ready to become an apathetic deity just yet."

Dawn moved towards the glowing door holding visions of all those she held dear, but the incarnation of the Powers held up a hand, causing her to pause. "I must warn you, this way will be hard. In all your journeying, the thing you longed for most was an end. What I offer you here is the path back to the beginning. Are you certain that this is the way your destiny lies?"

"Someday, perhaps, I will be ready to stand by your side and fight on a higher plane, but today is not that day. How can I be an effective tool when my education is incomplete? Despite what I thought, it seems as though I have one last door to explore," Dawn said with a sigh.

"So be it," the woman said, and Dawn felt herself being flung forward through the portal. As the Hall of the Powers faded from her perception, she thought she heard the faint words "well chosen, Keeper of the Gates" being murmured behind her, but then the ground was rushing to meet her, and she could think of nothing but pain as her body forcefully collided with the earth.

Dawn slowly rose from the ground, her body feeling achy and weak. "Dawn," Buffy exclaimed, rushing to embrace her. She stopped short though, noticing suddenly the drastic change her sister had undergone. Her hair had gone from a deep chestnut to the palest white, and her skin was glowing and slightly translucent.

"Dawn, you bleached your hair!" Anya said in a slightly disapproving tone. Xander quickly shushed her as they moved to join everyone gathering around Dawn.

"Dear Lord! What happened to you, Dawn?" Giles asked in a startled but relieved voice.

"Dawn, is it really you?" Willow asked, reaching her hand out reverently. She soon thought better of that though, snatching her hand away as she felt the power rolling off of Dawn in waves.

Everyone stood warily in a protective circle around Dawn, not quite certain whether this ghost-like figure was really _their_ Dawn back from the dead or some creature sprung from Glory's portal that only _seemed_ like the girl they all loved. Spike had no such reservations though. The scent of her invaded his senses and snapped him out of his grief-spun coma. He elbowed his way past the protective group and pulled Dawn into a fierce kiss, heedless of the gaping stares he was receiving.

"Cor, luv...you give growing up overnight a whole new meaning," he said, fingering her hair. "I swear, you'll be the death of me yet. When I felt you slip from my mind, I thought you were goners for sure. You have to work some powerful mojo to break the link between a vampire and one he's bound, short of killing the person that is. Don't you _ever_ leave me like that again, you hear?" he demanded, shaking her slightly before pulling her into a tight embrace.

Dawn sagged against Spike, her world spinning. "My Spike…my dearest Spike…I'm not sure I have much of a choice," she murmured. "I've waited so long…so very, very long…only to have you torn from me once more. I...I don't think I have much time."

"Bloody hell," Spike growled as he looked at the girl in his arms. Her skin was glowing brightly now and becoming more transparent by the second. It was as if she were disappearing before his very eyes yet again.

"You're the vessel," Dawn said with a flash of insight. "You have to take what I've learned...before it's too late. Don't let me be lost," she cried weakly.

"And how am I supposed to do that, luv?" Spike growled in frustration, not entirely certain what Dawn was going on about. "Did you learn the Vulcan mind meld in your trip through the bright glowing hole in the sky?"

"You know how," she said, pushing his head towards her throat.

"Dawn, luv. You must've bumped your head a bit too hard. You forget we are standing in the midst of your dearly beloved. I'll be staked six ways to Sunday if I try anything like that with this lot present," he whispered harshly in her ear. "If you're feelin' frisky, couldn't we retire to a place a bit more...private?"

"I'll protect you," she said softly. "Just hurry." Indeed, she was already protecting him. A soft glow had encircled them both, keeping Dawn's well-meaning protectors from ripping her out of Spike's arms, as they desperately wanted to do the moment he had kissed her.

"Whatever the lady wishes," Spike said, kissing her tenderly before cautiously moving his lips toward her throat. He had meant to go slowly, but Dawn would not allow it. She took his head in her hands and forcefully impaled herself on his fangs, to the unanimous screech of protest from the group surrounding them. They were soon silenced though, as a wave of energy emanating from the couple threw them all to the ground.

Spike moaned as the first drops of Dawn's blood passed his lips. Normally the taste of her blood was sheer ambrosia, but this went beyond even that. What he was tasting was pure power...eons worth of experience flowing into him in one concentrated burst...and he was drunk with the pleasure of it. Usually he was required to reign in his hunger for her own safety, but now he could not stop if he tried. Something originating within Dawn herself was forcing him on. Not that he would be inclined to stop, were the choice his to make. He drank and drank, glutting himself on her, intent on draining every last drop.

Dawn too was reveling in the experience. She clung fiercely to Spike, her breath coming in ragged gasps as she arched against him, almost animalistic in her intensity. She invaded him as much as he was invading her, intent on pushing her entire life force inside of him through sheer force of will. In a final burst of energy, she tilted back her head and let out a primal scream, releasing all the pent up frustration of being away from her only true love for too many years to count. Spike's world exploded along with Dawn's, causing him to fall to the ground, unconscious.

Unable to approach the couple, Buffy and the others had stared in slack-jawed amazement as Dawn and Spike had practically mated in front of them. Dawn's glowing had increased in intensity until she was too bright to look at. After her final burst of energy, the light had rapidly faded, and everyone moved tentatively forward to see if Dawn was alright. Where the couple had been, there was now only the prone form of Spike, still shimmering slightly.

And wrapped protectively in Spike's arms was a tiny glowing baby, staring up at them with bright blue eyes.


	27. Chapter 27

Author's Note: I've been terrible about updating recently...I just couldn't find the motivation to write. Thanks to everyone who sent me feedback and encouraged me to keep going. Also, a big thanks to my friend Daniel...he's the one who gave me a kick in the butt and got me to finally post a new chapter!

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Buffy landed on the ground with a thud. Anya stared at the Slayer with a bored look on her face, not understanding her obviously futile efforts. Willow and Xander tried to stifle their laughter as Giles shook his head. "Really, Buffy. How many times are you going to try this before you realize that you are just going to have to wait for him to wake up," Giles said in consternation. 

"As many times as it takes," Buffy said through gritted teeth as she picked herself up off the ground.

"Maybe you should wait for him to stop glowing," Willow suggested lightheartedly.

For the past half hour, Buffy had been trying to wrest the infant out of Spike's arms, only to be thrust back by some mystical energy field that was protecting the odd pair. Granted, they all had tried to get the mysterious child away from the soulless vampire at some point, but Buffy was the only one who persisted in her attempts after repeated failure. It was just not in her nature to give up. It was part of what made her such an excellent Slayer, but at the moment, it was also part of what was making her into comic relief. After everyone had had enough laughs at Buffy's expense, they collectively took hold of her and forced her to sit down on the ground as they waited for Spike to wake up. After a while, their patience was rewarded, and Spike gradually began to stir.

Spike was oblivious to the commotion around him. All he knew at the moment was a warm sort of pleasure that suffused every fiber of his being. He purred in contentment as he slowly came back to consciousness. Every ache was gone, every wound healed, and his whole body tingled with the afterglow of what he had experienced. Even the time he had drained an entire convent in one night, he had not felt so decadently glutted. His mind felt strangely full as well, although he was having trouble actually grasping any of the multitudes of images that were floating through his head. They were like specters, disappearing the moment he tried to focus on them.

Spike spent several long moments basking in the glow of these sensations before he noticed the many sets of expectant eyes glaring impatiently down at him. As he began to sit up, he noticed something else as well...somehow a squirming infant had ended up cradled against his chest. He was about to follow his natural instinct, which was to thrust the bundle of happy energy into the nearest pair of arms, when something stopped him. He looked into the eyes of the child, eyes that seemed far too wise for any infant, and he felt his heart leap.

"Dawn?" he whispered incredulously, tenderly stroking the baby's face. To the horror of everyone watching, Spike bit down on his finger and allowed a few drops of blood to fall into the child's mouth. Then he made the tiniest of cuts on one of the child's fingers and took that blood into his own mouth. They were like a demonic version of Madonna and child. Everyone rushed forward in unison to stop the atrocity they were witnessing, and as before, they all were thrown back to the ground. Spike didn't even notice. To him, it felt like his heart was being restored. The connection that had gone dead when Dawn had disappeared into the portal suddenly flared back to life. "You will always be mine," Spike whispered possessively to the gurgling baby.

Finally, Spike spared a glance at the people surrounding him. "May I present to you, Dawn Summers," he said, nodding towards the baby.

"I don't understand. How can that baby be Dawn?" Buffy asked.

"Well, what I can gather from the bloody huge mess of information in my head, Dawn didn't actually die when she went through the portal Glory opened. Instead, our Dawn here just went on a cosmic road trip and made a pit stop in every existing dimension along the way. Coming back home just happened to be the light at the end of her tunnel." Spike said this all with an air of certainty, despite how far-fetched it might seem. Something in his mind told him he was speaking the truth.

"That...that's impossible!" Giles stuttered. "The demon dimensions are infinite in number!"

"No, not infinite," Spike countered. "There's just enough of them that it seems that way."

"Such a journey would take lifetimes...it's not humanely possible," Giles said.

"Whoever said she was human, mate?" Spike replied softly.

"The monks who made her said that she was human," Buffy interjected angrily. "You know, the whole 'they sent the key to her in human form' thing."

"Bugger human form...you know, to most people, _I_ look human," Spike said as he stared intently at Buffy. His eyes then began to glow, and he let his fangs elongate. "But we both know that isn't quite true."

"Well, if Dawn isn't human, then what is she?" Anya said bluntly, asking the question that was on everyone's mind.

"She's a weapon," Giles said grimly. "Or least she will be, once the Powers are through with her."

"G-man, are you sure that Glory didn't knock you on your head one to many times? You're trying to tell me that this little baby is a _weapon_?" Xander asked.

"Just imagine, Xander, having intimate knowledge of all the dimensions, and the ability to survive in those dimensions, whether by strength, cunning or magic, all packed into one person. Add to that a near-immortal body and the ability to travel between the dimensions at will, and you have quite a formidable opponent," Giles explained.

"So, little Dawn is going to grow up to be like a Watcher and a Slayer all rolled into one, with a little witchiness thrown in for good measure. Gee...let's hope she's on our side," Xander said with a laugh.

"Indeed," Giles said, glancing nervously at the possessive hold Spike had on the baby. If Spike insisted on raising the child, there was a very good chance she would _not_ be on their side.

"She won't be much of anything without me," Spike said. "Her infant body couldn't handle keeping all of that information. That's why she made me her vessel. I didn't just get a belly full of blood…I get to have the back of my brain full to bursting with borrowed knowledge until she is ready to claim it as her own."

Buffy took a defensive stance. "Does that mean we need to be worried about you Spike? Are you going to go all Uber-Vamp on us? Because I won't hesitate to kill you, and Dawn's memories too, if you try to hurt anyone I love...the Powers be damned.

Spike chuckled deeply. "Put the stake down, Slayer. Do you really think that if I had all of Dawn's power, you would even stand a chance of stopping me? But no worries...the power isn't mine to wield."

Buffy still looked like she was about to pounce on Spike, but Giles laid his hand on her arm and gently lowered it. "I think I have an idea of what he's trying to say. If I may?" Giles asked, looking at Spike.

Spike made a sweeping gesture with his hand. "Go right ahead, mate. You're better with the fancy words than I am."

"From the way I understand it, Dawn acquired her knowledge over a vast number of years. At the end of her journey, she chose Spike as a vessel to hold this knowledge for her, but he did not actually experience any of the memories in his head, which prevents him from having the intimate knowledge necessary to actually wield the power contained within Dawn's experiences."

"I don't think they are buying it, Watcher," Spike said.

Giles sighed in exasperation at the blank faces of Buffy and her friends. "Perhaps a metaphor will help. The difference between Spike and Dawn is like the difference between reading a book and actually writing it. If your performance in school is any indication, most of what you read in a book quickly passes out of your head and is of no use to you. You only retain a small fraction. But if you _write_ the book, you have intimate knowledge of every detail because you created it. Spike may be able to call up certain memories, and heaven forbid, even use them to his advantage, but the amount of information is so vast that he will never be able to grasp it all. More likely, the sheer amount of data will be so overwhelming that Spike will slowly drift into insanity, at which point we just need to keep watch over him until Dawn is ready to regain her memories."

"Not bloody likely," Spike growled. "There will be no padded cell for this vampire."

Willow interjected before the vampire and Watcher could begin a full fledged fight. "I can understand why you don't think Spike will become all Super-Vampy and kill us, but what I don't understand is why the Powers would go through all the trouble of making Dawn into such a powerful weapon, and then turn around and make her all weak once they had succeeded."

"Because she's not quite done yet, Red. Despite everything she has learned, there is one thing she has never truly experienced...being a child. All of her childhood memories were fabrications, shoved into her head without so much as a 'by your leave'. Dawn needed to be reborn to learn how to be a child...and to learn how to be human again. This bleedin' journey the Powers sent her on nearly sucked out her soul. Now they're givin' her the chance to get it back. Anyway, she hasn't had a vacation in a few millennia...I'd say she's earned a little break, wouldn't you?"

"The cost of gaining all those skills..." Giles said softly. "I can't even fathom what she must have went through."

"I can..." Spike said intently. "It's all in here. The years spent going from dimension to dimension, living through hell itself, teaching herself everything she needed to know just so she could survive. All this pain is crammed into my skull, but Dawn...she had to live through it, and she had to do it all alone. To everyone here, she was gone for a matter of minutes. Our grief only lasted moments. She has had to grieve for centuries. The whole time she was gone, she never realized that she would be coming back, and she mourned for us the entire time, as if we were the ones who had died. She was so alone..."

Spike clutched the infant Dawn to him as he began to silently weep for all that she had gone through...he could feel the sorrow of her years spent alone pulsing in the back of his mind, and it overwhelmed him. The baby nuzzled his face and began to suckle at his bloody tears as if they were milk. As soon as Spike realized this, he held the baby away from his face. "No, you mustn't, luv. I'm...I'm no good for you. Not yet anyway," he said sadly.

Spike took a deep breath and held the baby towards Giles. "Go on and take her, Watcher, before I think better of it and run off into the night with our little bundle of joy."

Giles did not need to be asked twice. He quickly took the squirming infant into his arms and held her closely. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but what has brought on this sudden burst of generosity? You don't strike me as the selfless type. Why not raise Dawn yourself? It's obvious that this child was somehow protecting you…you could have walked away with her, and we would have been powerless to stop you."

"Don't you see? The Powers that Be are giving Dawn a second chance. She gets to be young again...to live at least part of her life without the weight of the world on her shoulders. She needs a proper family for that. A mum and a dad. She needs to be able to play in the sun and have friends. I could never give her all that, but you and the Slayer, you can raise her proper. Give her a spot of joy before she has to go save the world on a daily basis."

Spike looked slightly ill after that outpouring of sentimentality, so he added for good measure: "Besides, what kind of father would I be...just waiting for her to come of age so I could fuck her fillings out. That girl wouldn't even make it to puberty. We vampires aren't known for our patience, now are we? So I think I'll just leave an incestual father-daughter relationship off the list of my depravities, if it's all the same to you."

"Could you be any more foul?" Buff said in a disgusted tone. "How can you even think about having sex with a child?"

"Well, you see, Dawn here has only been an infant for a short bit. It weren't but a few hours ago that a very adult-like Dawn had her legs wrapped around my waist, beggin' me to do all sorts of nasty things to her. I wouldn't be surprised if I had a stain on my jeans from the wet spot she left. With memories like that, how can I _not_ think about what it will be like to finally claim her? Because rest assured, no matter what you and the Scoobies try to do to stop it, Dawn and I are a part of each other, and our mating is an inevitability. I'm just gonna have to wait a mite longer than I had originally intended."

Buffy grasped her head in dismay. "I so did NOT need that mental image. There will be no more talk of sleeping with my sister."

"Fine then, how about we talk about when the nuptials will be for you and your new beau. We can't have Dawn being raised in a broken home, now can we?" Spike said with a wicked grin.

"What! Me..Giles...together? No...no way! There is a me, and there is a Giles. There is no me and Giles!"

"Oh come off it, Slayer. It's obvious that you and the Watcher are just itchin' to do the nasty. I've just given you a convenient excuse to stop putting it off. You should be thankin' me."

"Spike, we will gladly accept the care of young Dawn here, but you will kindly stay out of our respective love lives. Dawn will be given a good home, regardless of the marital status of those who take care of her," Giles said stiffly, not wanting to betray that a marriage to Buffy would not be the most unpleasant thing he could be forced to endure.

Dawn began to cry loudly, as if she were trying to lend her vocal support to Spike's argument. Spike quickly snatched the child from Giles' arms. "No deal. Either Dawn gets a father _and_ a mother, or I'll just take it upon myself to raise her."

Giles stared at Spike forlornly, not knowing what to do. Buffy got a stony look on her face. It seemed like she was going to attack Spike and try to wrest the baby from his arms, but at the last second, something in her deflated. She had spent the better part of an hour trying to fight to get baby Dawn away from Spike without luck…and he had been unconscious for all of that. She would have no chance at reclaiming her sister if Spike actively tried to keep her from them. So instead, she turned towards Giles and kissed him gently.

"I can live with that," she said, a determined look on her face.


	28. Chapter 28

**Author's Note:**This part is _very_ heavy on the Buffy/Giles pairing. I know that some people really don't like that pairing, so I've tried to write this chapter in such a way that you can skip it and not really miss all that much if you really don't feel like reading about them finally getting together.

Oh, and once again, thanks go to my friend Daniel for giving me the motivation to write!

* * *

Giles staggered away from Buffy, gasping in shock. The feeling of her lips on his, brief though it had been, was almost too much to for him bear. It had opened the floodgates to all the desires he had been carefully trying to repress, and now he ached for more.

He barely noticed Spike and Buffy exchanging words. He didn't notice much of anything until Spike disappeared with a swirl of his trench coat into the night. Then Buffy, his beautiful warrior goddess, was approaching him with a child in her arms. Their child now, to raise and protect as if she were their own.

He stared at them in awe, until Xander snapped him out of his stupor.

"Guess we have a wedding to plan," he said with a forced, nervous laugh, clapping Giles on the shoulder.

Giles couldn't stop a silly grin from flitting across his face, but then he glanced at Buffy, and his spirits sank. He might be overjoyed at the thought of marriage, but she was a young, vibrant woman, and once again duty was forcing her to put her own happiness aside for the sake of another. It pained him to realize that he was yet again taking away an opportunity for Buffy to live any semblance of a normal life.

"I don't think so mister," Buffy muttered softly. "No guilt trips for you." Buffy cupped his face in her hand and kissed him softly. Their first kiss had been gentle, but perfunctory…a show put on to get Spike to leave them in peace. This kiss was lingering, and Giles could almost dare to hope that Buffy shared his feelings. In those moments, the rest of the world ceased to exist; there was only Buffy. The gurgling laugh of the baby Buffy still held broke them apart. They both looked down at the infant Dawn with grins on their faces.

Willow snaked her arm around Xander's waist and smiled. "I think they're going to be alright," she said, staring at the oblivious couple.

"Yeah, I think so too, Wil."

* * *

The wedding occurred a week later, and it was a simple affair. Buffy was radiant in her mother's old wedding dress, and Giles was the picture of an English gentleman in his tux. Willow and Anya were bridesmaids, and Xander had the honor of being the best man. The Buffybot and baby Dawn were the only ones in the audience. It was better that way. They were all a family of sorts now, and the only family Buffy felt she needed.

When it came time to say the vows, there was no hesitation. Heartfelt "I do's" rang out clearly in the church. After much throwing of rice, everyone retired to Giles' place for the reception. The "reception" was really just a dinner with fancy catered food that had been ordered rather than their normal take-out or pizza. The evening was long and full of laughter, but eventually it was time for everyone to go home.

"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Buffy asked worriedly as Willow was bundling up Dawn to take with her.

"Really, I'll be fine. I love kids. And anyway, it's your wedding night. You don't want the festivities interrupted by a crying baby, now do you?" she asked with an impish grin.

Giles began to get a panicked look in his eyes when he realized that soon he would be alone with his bride.

"Really, you don't have to leave quite yet. It's been ages since we've all had a pleasant evening. It would be a shame to end it so soon."

"You'll be fine G-man. It's not like it's your first time. And here's something that might help calm your nerves," Xander said in a confidential tone as he handed Giles a chocolate bar. "Consider it a wedding gift."

It only took a second for comprehension to sink in. That candy had been the cause of him sleeping with his bride's mother after all. It carried the taint of Ethan Rayne's magic, and it was something he certainly didn't want influencing him tonight. "Dear Lord! Is this what I think it is? How much did you save, Alexander Harris?"

"Enough, my good man, enough. I mean, c'mon, everyone likes to take a walk on the wild side every now and again. And this stuff does wonders for your sex drive," Xander said with a wink.

"Out!" Giles yelled, shoving Xander towards the door as he turned an undignified shade of purple.

Willow and Anya gave a startled look at Giles and decided that they would take this opportunity to slip out the door, before any more stalling could occur.

Giles felt very awkward now that everyone was gone. This was the first time he'd been alone with Buffy since the ceremony. Buffy...his wife.

"What was that all about?" Buffy asked with an arched eyebrow. "What did Xander give you?"

Giles tried to surreptitiously hide the candy bar behind his back, but to no avail. Perhaps some of the magic was leaking from the old chocolate, but instead of dutifully handing over the "gift" Xander had given him, Giles decided to be playful and hold it out of Buffy's reach.

Buffy jumped and squirmed against him in an attempt to reach the candy bar he held above his head, and her movements were like sweet torture. Eventually Giles had to back away before he lost control. Buffy didn't realize his situation though, and took his actions as a cue to chase him around the house. While he easily outmatched the Slayer in height, in speed she had no problems overtaking him. With a triumphant laugh, she tackled him to the ground, straddled him, and snatched the candy bar out of his hands.

"Chocolate? Why would Xander give you a chocolate bar? And more importantly, why are you making such a big deal about it? From the fuss you made, I was expecting glow in the dark condoms or something," she said with a wicked grin, fully aware of her position on top of him.

"That isn't normal candy," Giles said as he tried in vain to take the chocolate bar from her. Buffy was having too much fun with him.

"I hear chocolate is an aphrodisiac...maybe I should have a small bite," Buffy said teasingly.

"No, you mustn't!" Giles cried. "That piece of candy is a remnant of a large batch of chocolate that had dark magic worked on it, causing the eater to become wild and unrestrained. As tempting as that may sound, it isn't safe, my love."

"Oh...I remember this stuff! It did have some rather...interesting side effects. But that was years ago. This candy bar must be ancient. I bet it's lost some of its mojo by now...or at least gone stale." Buffy carelessly tossed the candy bar over her shoulder. "Anyway, I don't need some magicked-up piece of chocolate to get me in the mood."

Buffy leaned down to kiss Giles, but he gently pushed her away. "Buffy, you needn't do this. Everyone is gone now...there is no need to keep up the pretense. I know you only married me to keep Spike from stealing your sister away from you, and I respect that. I have cleared out the guest bedroom, and you may move your things in whenever you see fit. I promise I will show you the utmost courtesy. I would never presume to..."

"Shhh..." Buffy said, placing her finger over his lips. "You have been there for me through so much. You have devoted your life to me, given up so much just to keep me safe and see me grow. You have gone beyond duty and given me your love, and I want to give you the same in return. I know that when I am in your arms, I feel warm and safe. I want to make this work. I want to make _us_ work."

Giles could not tell if the wetness on his face was from her tears or his own, but her speech made him give up any further protestations he might have. He pulled her to him and began devouring her lips, drowning in her presence. He lavished kisses on her neck as he started to reverently peel off her clothing, memorizing the curves of her body with his hands. His worshipful pace was too slow for Buffy though, and after a few minutes, she couldn't bear it anymore. She took the upper hand and began to tear his clothes off with abandon.

Giles was certain he heard several of his buttons clatter across the floor, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He was caught up in the maelstrom that is Buffy. There was no awkward pause before they began their lovemaking, no mumbled protestations of how it wasn't too late to stop. They came together as if they had been made for each other.

When she sank onto him, Giles thought he had died and gone to heaven. She rode him at a frenzied pace. He had to grab her hips and force her to slow for fear that it would be over too soon. He rolled on top of her and began his own pace, just as torturous for its slowness. Soon she was writhing just as he had been, her body arching off the floor. His hands roamed over her, searching for the places that would make her shiver. When his fingers reached between her legs, she gasped his name and bucked into him, leaving deep scratch marks down his back. He waited until her peak before allowing himself to come with a loud moan.

Giles rolled over and cradled his wife against his chest. Despite the painful gouges in his back, he couldn't remember ever being so happy. They stayed that way for a time, in blissful lethargy. Eventually though, lust began to stir in each of them again. Giles picked up Buffy and carried her upstairs so they could make love in a proper bed. For a moment he paused and glanced out the living room window. He felt a sudden chill, as if someone were watching them, but he dismissed it as paranoia. His bride was getting impatient.

* * *

Spike grimaced from his spot outside Giles' living room window. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy at seeing the Watcher and Slayer claim each other. He had felt something for her once, and he had even contemplated taking the Slayer for himself while waiting for Dawn to grow up. He was certain that if he had forced her hand, the Slayer would have agreed to be with him to keep Dawn in her life. She would do practically anything for that little girl. And then when the time was right, and Dawn was ripe for the plucking, he would have betrayed her, of course. He would have sucked every last drop from her body, taking his Slayer count up to three, and then laid the blame at the feet of some fledgling and the fact that poor Buffy was past her prime. It would have been perfect.

It was Dawn's faithfulness that held him back, that kept him from using her sister as a toy until Dawn grew older. Dawn had been true to him for lifetimes, clinging to their bond when all reason said she should have moved on. What little honor he had in him wouldn't allow him to sully that. If she could wait that long, then he could at least honor her sacrifice by keeping her loved ones whole.

Which was why he was here playing the voyeur, getting an eyeful of the Watcher and Slayer doing the nasty. Not that he really wanted to watch those two get it on, but he didn't put much stock in antiquated ceremonies. Spike was certain the Watcher was being honest, he practically reeked of love and lust every time the Slayer was in the room, but he needed to make certain that Buffy hadn't lied to him. The depth of nauseating intimacy they showed away from prying eyes was a much clearer sign to him that they were actually mated, that they would be a real family to raise Dawn, not just two people living in a sham of a marriage. With a satisfied grunt, he pushed himself away from the tree he'd been leaning against and headed for his car.

It was time to get the hell out of Sunnydale.


	29. Chapter 29

**Author's Note: **I know that the last chapter was a bit Buffy/Giles heavy. For those of you who decided to skip that chapter, this chapter should recap the important parts of the last chapter without going into too much of the B/G detail.

* * *

Spike drove away from Sunnydale as fast as his car would allow. He had watched the girl he loved die twice that day. The first time when she sacrificed herself to close Glory's portal, and the second when she had returned and been reincarnated as an infant. Everything that had truly been her was stored safely within his skull, and he saw no reason to stick around Sunnyhell a second longer than he had to. The girl he was leaving behind was not _his _Dawn—not yet at least. He had to give her space to grow and mature before she would be ready to take on the mantle of her old memories…and with them, her love for him.

Even if he wasn't fit to raise her, he could still have stolen her away…found her a nurturing foster home that was filled with warmth and love…a home that was far away from the dangerous world of demons and vampires that the Slayer and her ilk were eyeballs deep in. But Spike knew that wouldn't do. Somehow he realized that it would be too much of a shock to Dawn's system for her to be raised in a happy little family nestled away in some suburban bubble-world only to have her mind filled with centuries worth of pain-laced information on demons and magic and vampires (and various other sorts of things no doe-eyed teenager had any business knowing) once she came of age.

But any people he knew that were fit to instruct Dawn about all the things that go bump in the night were not exactly parenting material…they were more the type to slay a child on a sacrificial altar. Changing nappies and attending PTA meetings didn't quite fit their image. The only people he knew who could straddle both worlds were the Slayer and her lot. Even if there was the chance that they would try to poison Dawn against him, they were the ones (besides him of course) that Dawn had loved most in the world. Once her memories were restored, she should certainly be appreciative that Spike had allowed her to remain with the only people she had ever considered to be family—and he did rather like Dawn when she was feeling…appreciative.

Perhaps Dawn's memories in his head were affecting him more than he realized, because he had played a bit of a good Samaritan before high-tailing it out of town. Or maybe he was just going soft in his old age, setting up the Watcher and Slayer like that. No…better to say that he was keeping the Slayer focused on caring for Dawn by removing the emotional turmoil that goes part and parcel with romantic endeavors. The Slayer would certainly be less inclined to go spreading her legs for every stupid boy that showed her the slightest bit of attention…and getting her ickle little heart shredded to pieces in the process…if Spike chose her mate for her. Dawn really would have a more stable home environment this way.

Spike smirked at the memory of the dumbfounded look on the Watcher's face after Buffy had kissed him. He really did look a bit daft with his mouth hanging open like that. Spike let the aftermath of that scene play out in his mind...

Buffy had stalked over to him with an impatient look on her face, and Spike couldn't help but laugh.

"Really, Slayer. You don't expect me to hand Dawn over just because you decided to throw the Watcher a crumb, now do you? Honestly, give a vampire some credit here."

"What exactly is it that you want, Spike?" Buffy growled. "You can't expect us to fuck right here in the middle of the street."

"Now that would be an eyeful, wouldn't it?" Spike said as Buffy got an indignant look on her face and began to turn a bright shade of red.

"No worries, kitten. It's nothing like that I'm after. I just want to make sure that Dawn has a proper family. You can tell her when she's older about her real past if you like, but she's had so little of normal in her life, I want her to at least have a semblance of a decent childhood. That means she needs a mum and a dad and a real home. Given your taste in men, I couldn't really trust you to go for Mr. Right…or even Mr. Mediocre for that matter…so I thought I'd give you a mandatory shove in the right direction."

"I suppose I could have taken you for myself," Spike said softly, tracing his finger along her cheek before letting his hand drift lower and slide casually across her breasts. He leaned in and let his lips hover just above hers as he whispered, "Anything to keep Dawn safe, right luv?"

Buffy gritted her teeth and looked him square in the eye. "Whatever it takes."

Spike had known in that instant how easy it would be to destroy Buffy, ravaging her until she was all used up and casting her aside for Dawn when the time was right. The idea certainly had its merits, having a Slayer as a pet being chief among them, but he couldn't do that to his girl. He couldn't tarnish the purity of the love she felt for him in that way. Because, even though it would take years, that love would be restored to her…along with centuries of experience and power. Spike felt it was certainly safer to err on the side of caution and do everything unhumanly possible to make Dawn favorably inclined towards him when that moment came. And Dawn was certain to be right pissed if she regained her memories of him only to find out he'd been fucking the fillings out of her sister for a decade or so as a way to pass the time.

And that is why he decided to spare Buffy and pair her up with the one man that was least likely to hurt her. The seeds were already there…the two of them gave each other sickening looks full of pent up longing whenever they thought no one was observing. Spike was merely giving them an excuse to ignore the taboo of a Watcher/Slayer relationship.

He had made it sound like a joke when speaking to the Slayer, casually glossing over all the various implications of the decision he was making. "Lucky for you that I'm not much of a father figure," he had said flippantly, withdrawing his hand from the Slayer with only the slightest wince of remorse at the opportunity he was choosing to let slip through his fingers.

"But you have to do things proper, ya hear? Have yourself a nice little church wedding, and you raise Dawn in a good home. None of this neglecting her or keeping her in the dark because of your 'sacred duty'. If I ever think for a second that you are doing her wrong, I'll come back and teach you all what the meaning of pain really is."

"You have my word Spike. Dawn will get the life she deserves."

With that, Spike had handed over Dawn and walked out of their lives. Or at least, so they all thought. He had stuck around long enough to watch the nuptials, from a distance of course, churches not really being his thing. He had even played peeping Tom to the wedding night, all to ensure that the whole thing wasn't a farce. If he couldn't be there to protect Dawn from all the nastiness in life, he could at least keep her safe from the angst of having a broken home.

And protecting her was why he was leaving now. She was only a tiny baby, still in her swaddling clothes, and he had already claimed her with his blood. Patience wasn't his strong suit. He had spoken the truth when he had told the Slayerettes that he would be counting the days until Dawn was old enough for him to possess fully. But the girl he loved was strong and independent. He shuddered to think what being raised by him would do to her. He didn't want to mould her into someone who would love him...she needed to love him of her own accord. So he drove out of town and let Dawn have the childhood that was so sorely lacking from all of her countless experiences.

He couldn't bear to stay away the entire time though. While Dawn was still too young to remember, Spike would slip into the Watcher's house in the middle of the night and spend hours watching over Dawn in her cradle. Foolish git never had revoked his invite. He would coo at her and give her just the tiniest taste of his blood, to keep their connection strong, and take a drop of hers in return. She was so trusting. She would always gurgle contentedly and hold her arms out to him with no fear whatsoever.

It was the day that he realized she was learning to talk that he knew he had to stay away. She was still so young, but one night when he came to visit, she had thrown her arms around his neck and giggled "my angel" into his ear with a happy laugh. His dead heart had nearly broken to hear that she thought of him that way. But he knew that if he kept comin' round, she would start to talk about the mysterious "angel" that came to visit her in the night, and then the Slayer would be reminded that she must start poisoning Dawn's mind against him. He'd rather they all lived in blissful ignorance, the memory of him fading from their minds as they slowly ceased believing he would come back for Dawn some day. So he forced himself to stay away.

For years he drifted from town to town, but the separation from Dawn was too much for him to bear. Pale, lithe girls with long dark hair became his obsession. He always picked young ones, girls who were just beginning to blossom into women, and he would make them fall in love with him. They would touch and pet and pine for him, a pale reflection of his relationship with Dawn...and sometimes he'd even let on that he was a vampire.

But it was never the same. With each one, on the night they had sex for the first time, the illusion would crumble and Spike would see why this girl wasn't Dawn. She was just a bit shorter or her hair was the wrong shade of brown or her waist too narrow. There was always something slightly off about each one, but Spike could force himself to ignore it until the girl spread her legs for him and let him sink into her welcoming flesh. Dawn had never been able to take that step. And so Spike would take the girls hard and fast, relishing their confused and startled cries as all of his tenderness vanished. Then, at the moment of release, Spike would rip the girl's throat out in a bloody rage, gorging until she was completely empty and tossing the husk of her body aside like a piece of unwanted trash…because she wasn't Dawn...she was never Dawn.

The years passed in a dull blur of pain and blood for Spike. He was mindlessly pursuing yet another girl who possessed echoes of Dawn when something changed. His connection to Dawn was always present in the back of his mind, and one day he felt something out of the ordinary. Instead of the normal flux of emotions normally present in a young girl, he felt the first twinges of teenage puppy love. Without thinking, he abandoned the current girl he had set out to pursue and hopped the first red-eye flight he could find back to California.

Dawn's youthful crush was a doe-eyed boy of 14, and they were at the stage where they could often be seen holding hands and sharing milkshakes and various other sickeningly cute displays of affection. But the boy had been easy enough to dispatch. Spike had merely stalked him until he found him walking home alone one night. A few well-placed punches and a whispered threat about how he would murder the boy's family members one by one unless he left Dawn alone was enough to squash any burgeoning thoughts of love in the boy's heart. He never spoke more than a handful of words to Dawn after that night. Spike could feel Dawn's confusion and hurt through their connection, but it was for the best. She was his. She just didn't know it yet.

Spike had found his new obsession. He took up residence in a town several miles outside Sunnydale and watched Dawn from the shadows of their bond, always returning whenever the need arose to discourage any new love interests. If he focused enough and opened their connection to its fullest potential, he could practically see through Dawn's eyes...see what boys she pined for and on whom her gaze lingered. If the infatuation ever progressed to something more, Spike would step in. Sometimes he used threats, and sometimes he was more clever. He was particularly proud of a certain ploy he frequently used. When Dawn and her date would inevitably end up going to the Bronze, teen hot spot that it was, Spike would instruct one of his more buxom fledglings (of which he had several just for this purpose) to seduce the boy away from Dawn.

Her pain was always excruciating to him, yet even in her sorrow, she was beautiful and strong. He could see her being forged by her loneliness, growing into her own person without the influence of a passing boyfriend to make her change herself for him. He always left her love interests alive, making them look as unworthwhile as possible, so she would realize that she never needed them in the first place. The only exceptions were those who hurt her. The ones that would make her cringe and back away because they couldn't take a hint...they never lived until morning. He took great pleasure in scattering the pieces of their dead bodies so that they would never be seen or heard from again.

After a time, Dawn seemed to give up on love. Feelings of futility and disgust at the opposite sex began to filter through their connection, and Spike started to feel more at ease. He even gave up his sentinel position just outside of Sunnydale and began to move aimlessly around the states, idly trying to find any way to fill up his time. He tried not to think about how close she was to being ready for him to come into her life again.

He knew the time had come for him to return the day Dawn awoke as a Slayer. It was an unsettling sensation, like mental fingernails down a chalkboard. He theorized that the transition of power had something to do with Buffy aging. Shamed as he was to admit it, he recognized that the change coincided with Buffy's birthday. Her 35th birthday to be precise. Seems like Slayers get to pass the torch after all, if they can live long enough. He just never thought that Dawn would be the one to carry on that troublesome tradition.

He took his time coming back to Sunnyhell this go 'round. He ached to taste the new power in her blood, to finally claim her fully as his own, but he wanted to give Dawn time to develop her new abilities. If they were going to dance, he wanted it to be a challenge. He had no illusions of her running into his arms the moment he revealed himself. She would see a vampire, and they would fight…but it would be a glorious fight.

Her presence was like a homing beacon when he finally did arrive in town. She consumed his mind, and like a moth to a flame, she unknowingly pulled him towards her. He found her fighting in the graveyard that housed his old crypt, which he thought was rather fitting. She was working her way through a band of young vampires, her motions fluid as she staked one after the other.

As she finished what seemed to be the last of them, another fledgling jumped out from behind a statue and grabbed her from behind. The vampire cruelly spun her around and slammed her into the side of a mausoleum, causing Dawn to drop her stake in the process. Spike ached to jump in and save her, but he had to see first whether she could save herself.

It came as quite a shock to see Dawn wink out of this dimension just as the vamp was about to sink his fangs into her throat. Despite their connection, he hadn't quite realized that she'd picked up on the latent powers in her blood. He saw her quickly reappear behind the startled fledging. She smoothly picked up her dropped weapon and staked the vampire with a satisfied grin.

Spike chuckled to himself. Now _that_ was a new trick. He slowly stepped out of the shadows and smirked at Dawn.

"Tsk, tsk, pet. One might almost call that cheating."


	30. Chapter 30

Dawn yelped in surprise as Spike made his presence known. She should have been able to sense him...power rolled off him in waves…yet somehow he had been able to mask his presence from her. She recognized him almost immediately from her studies. There had been hand drawn pictures of him in the Watcher journals she had read, and even though more than a century had passed, he still retained every bit of his youth and dazzling good looks.

For a second she stared at him in awe. She had never been this close to such a powerful vampire…even Angel didn't send off power like this. Being so near to a creature like him was intoxicating. It was more than his physical beauty...although that alone was captivating. There was something about his aura. It caused echoes of past memories to flit through her mind…shadowy images of lust and tenderness that slipped away the moment she tried to focus on them.

Dawn took a tentative step forward, her blood connection to Spike causing her body to unconsciously remember its mate. She was being drawn to him like a moth to a flame, and even though she knew he might literally consume her, in this moment, she couldn't bring herself to care. Her Slayer blood would normally cause her to feel an uncontrollable revulsion at the thought of being intimate with a vampire, but in this case, although she did not realize what was happening, her blood bond to Spike was the stronger magic, and it caused her to be filled with longing for him.

By the time Dawn reached Spike, her whole body was trembling in an effort to fight whatever was happening to her. It was one thing to acknowledge that the enemy was inherently attractive…it was quite another to present herself to him like a lamb to the slaughter.

Spike reached out and cupped her face in his hand, and even as her trembling increased, Dawn couldn't help but lean into his touch. "Such a good girl," Spike murmured as a self-satisfied smirk crossed his face.

That look of utter arrogance was what finally caused Dawn to snap out of it. With an effort of will, she slapped his hand away from her face, an animalistic snarl of defiance emanating from her throat.

"And things were going so well," Spike said with a mockery of a sigh. But truly, her actions were causing his blood to boil. Fighting…feeding…fucking…they all went hand-in-hand for him, and he was itching to test out Dawn's skills before finally claiming her as his own.

"What's say we make this a fair fight, Slayer. All of this popping in and out of dimensions doesn't seem very sporting, now does it?"

"Whatever works," Dawn said with a grin, giving him a wink right before she completely disappeared. A second later, she rematerialized behind him, stake in hand.

Spike whirled and caught her wrist before it could even begin its decent towards his heart. "Now, now, luv...we'll have none of that," he whispered as he pulled her close, letting his lips linger on the skin of her ear.

Dawn struggled and pushed herself away from him, anger and confusion warring with each other on her face. He should be trying to kill her, not flirting with her. It was like he wasn't even trying.

Spike laughed at her predicament, which only served to increase her anger. Cor, but she was a vision of beauty as she shook in her wrath.

"I know that the Watcher and the Slayer...or should I say _former_ Slayer...must have been filling your head with all sorts of pretty tales about me, but I'm wise to your little trick, so what's say we have ourselves a proper fight. None of this winking in and out of dimensions rubbish."

"How do you know so much about me?" Dawn spat at him, still seething.

"If the Watcher'd done his job, I would think it'd be evident. Just what _did_ they tell you about me?"

"I was a good little Slayer and read all of the old Watcher journals after I was called. They told me all I needed to know about William the Bloody."

Dawn had reached her boiling point by this time, and she renewed her attack on Spike with vigor. She felt like a caged animal that was being taunted, and she'd had about enough. Dawn lunged at him and landed punch after punch to his face, none of which Spike even attempted to block, until eventually he was sent flying back into a headstone.

Spike laughed as he wiped a trickle of blood from his mouth. "Bloody hell, how I've missed this! Slayers always did get my blood pumping. C'mon pet, let's dance." Spike shot her a feral smile before launching himself at the young Slayer.

Dawn could barely block the flurry of punches and kicks that flew her way, but for some reason she felt honor-bound to abide by Spike's rules and 'fight fair' rather than use her ability as the Key to gain the upper hand. She had never fought anyone of this caliber before, and soon Dawn began to tire against the onslaught. Finally, one of Spike's blows sent her reeling to the ground, and Dawn laid there panting for breath.

"That was a good fight," Spike said with a grin. "You are strong for your age…like your sister was before you." He walked over to her and offered her a hand up, but she angrily slapped his hand away.

"I despise you," Dawn hissed as she unsteadily got to her feet, contempt and loathing practically oozing out of her pores.

Spike staggered back as if he'd been struck. None of the physical blows she had landed hurt as much as the animosity he heard in her voice. He thought she had just been testing him...after all, she had practically reeked of lust the moment he revealed himself to her. Spike had never expected sheer hate to be coming at him from his mate. It finally dawned on him that, outside of some highly biased information garnered from stodgy old Watcher journals, she honestly had no idea who he was…or what they had meant to each other. Without thinking, he grabbed Dawn and slammed her violently against the wall of a nearby crypt, pinning her arms above her head and forcing her to drop her stake.

Spike leaned in close, desperation tingeing his voice. "You mean they told you _nothing_ about your past? Don't you know who you are? Don't you know who _we_ are?"

Dawn struggled against his grip. She could already feel the bruises forming on her wrists, and it quickly became evident that, despite her Slayer strength, Spike had the upper hand. So she decided to go for the tried and true method of rambling for a bit to buy time.

"Let's get this straight buster...there is no _we_. I don't know what kind of mojo you worked on me when you first revealed yourself, but you can forget whatever sick fantasy you have about banging a Slayer. As far as I'm concerned, there is just you…me…and your future as a pile of dust."

"Ah, I see Buffy has passed on her ability for witty banter while at death's door," Spike growled. "How's about this. You don't threaten me, and I won't threaten you...much."

"Or perhaps you like it when I threaten you," Spike continued in a low voice as he grazed Dawn's neck with his fangs. "You shouldn't knock the whole 'banging a Slayer' idea…it's amazing what a good shag can do to change your outlook on things." His teeth broke her skin just the slightest bit, and Dawn gasped as Spike began to suckle at the wounds he had made.

Dawn trembled at the pleasure she was feeling at the hands of her supposed enemy. Pleasure that seemed somehow familiar to her treacherous body. Something latent in her flared to life every time he touched her, and it sapped her will, replacing it with an all-consuming desire. She couldn't even conceive of trying to escape to another dimension right now, even though it would only take a moment's worth of concentration to accomplish. Spike's touch had tethered her here more securely than if he had used actual chains.

"Please..." she murmured in a shaky voice, not entirely certain whether she was asking him to stop or to continue.

"What is it you want, pet," Spike asked, slowly rocking his hips against Dawn. "You finally starting to remember how good we can be?"

Dawn felt panic start to rise in her chest. She couldn't do this...couldn't have him this close. She had to do something before whatever magic he was working on her completely destroyed what willpower she had left.

"Don't you want to hear my story?" Dawn asked, desperately attempting to divert the vampire's attention away from his lustful intentions…intentions that were quickly leading to a scenario where Dawn ended up eagerly losing her virginity against the stone wall of a crypt in the cemetery.

"Ah, so the Watcher and Slayer _did_ fill you in on your oh so interesting past?" Spike asked.

"They didn't really have much of a choice," Dawn muttered bitterly. "They were decent enough to clue me into the bit about Buffy being my sister and all, but they kept me in the dark about all the mystical stuff for a good long time."

"But you always were the bright one...figured it out on your own the first go round. Bet this time wasn't much different," Spike said while he continued to lavish soft kisses on her neck.

Dawn sighed, trying to keep herself from being distracted from his attentions. "It was actually an accident. One day I was feeling the itch of teenage rebellion, so I snuck out at night. Unfortunately, some creep started following me."

"Human or demon?" Spike growled, his body tensing upon hearing this new bit of information.

"Human, oddly enough. You'd think, living on a Hellmouth, it would be something of the supernatural, but it was your garden variety rapist-wannabe. It's odd...until I was called as a Slayer, I _never_ really had a problem being attacked by random creatures that go bump in the night."

"Demons know better than to touch what I've marked as mine," Spike grumbled under his breath. "Humans never were that bright. They get themselves into a world of trouble, and don't realize it until it's too late. They've lost that instinctual sense for self-preservation. That's why they make such good snacks…easy pickings, they are. But go on then, what happened next?" Spike had ceased his teasing for the moment, too intent on keeping his anger in check while he listened to her tale of an attacker that had somehow managed to slip by his wrathful protection of her over the years.

"Well, I tried to speed up and get away, but my shoes weren't really meant for running...I fell down and got this nasty cut on my arm. When the guy got close, I panicked, and then all of a sudden there was a bright flash and I was in this weird place with lots of doors. I remember Giles muttering something about blood and 'muscle memory' when I told him that. But anyway...I could still see the guy outside the doorway I had come through, so I tried running away, but all the other doors were locked. Eventually I came back to the original door, which luckily didn't lock behind me, and the stalker-guy was gone. After that, Buffy and Giles gave me the spiel about being some mystical Key to the demon dimensions and how I had been reborn and given a chance at a 'normal' life...blah blah blah."

Dawn tried to sound blasé, but Spike could tell that these experiences must have left her reeling. Spike loosened his grip on Dawn's wrists and pulled her to his chest, slowly stroking her hair in a soothing manner. Dawn gave a slight gasp and tensed, but then she became caught up in the sheer physical presence of Spike surrounding her, and she relaxed against his chest.

"Go on, luv. They couldn't have stopped there. What else did they tell you?"

"They told me about how I had gone on some mystical journey, learned all this stuff, just to be turned into a baby," Dawn murmured into Spike's chest. "Now I'm supposed to be waiting for a 'vessel' to come and give me back all my memories and power so I can be this bad-ass fighter for the forces of good. Something like that. But they wouldn't say a word about who the vessel is. They told me it was better if they said nothing and let me decide on my own rather than letting their opinions influence my decision...as if I know what that is supposed to mean."

Spike was relieved, and quite honestly surprised, that the Watcher and Slayer had done right by him. "That must have been hard for you, pet," Spike cooed into her ear. "Waking up one morning to find that you aren't a normal girl after all."

"It's not all bad," Dawn mumbled into Spike's chest. "Some day I get to be a super-hero. I just need to wait until Mr. Vessel Guy turns up to give me back my mojo."

"Today happens to be your lucky day, luv. Here I am, a regular prince charming, ready to wake up his sleeping beauty." Spike leaned down and kissed her, a kiss that was gentle, yet urgent and demanding at the same time.

Dawn felt something tug inside of her, urging her to complete this union, and she hungrily kissed him back for a few moments. Then she realized what she was doing and roughly pushed him away from her as she staggered backwards, gasping for breath. "This can't be happening. You're a vampire...I'm a Slayer. These things don't mix!"

"You just take after your big sister is all," Spike said with a wink. "She had a thing for vamps as well. Ask her to tell you about our dear friend Angel some day."

"Oh, I so don't need to be hearing this," Dawn moaned, disturbed at hearing anything about Buffy's sex life. It was bad enough listening to her and Giles go at it when they thought she wasn't home…she didn't need visions of her sister having a torrid affair with her sometime-friend Angel to add to the mix.

Spike started closing the distance between him and Dawn once more, stalking her like his prey, until her back was again firmly against the wall of the crypt. "We're connected, you and I. You may be a Slayer, but my blood runs in your veins. It calls to me. Can't you feel it?" Spike asked, taking her hand and cradling it against his face.

Dawn started to tremble. "I don't know what I feel," she said in a shaky voice. "You're a vampire...something evil. And the Key is supposed to be pure. How can you be the vessel?"

"What better to protect the Key than a creature that can live forever? A creature that will love you forever," Spike murmured as he fell to his knees before her, circling her waist with his arms and nuzzling her stomach.

"But if you don't believe me, we can end this right here," Spike said softly as he picked up Dawn's fallen stake and placed it in her hands. He spread open his arms and looked up at her with imploring eyes.

"Choice is yours, pet."

Dawn stood there for a second, staring at the weapon in her hand. Every fiber of her being ached to be with him, but the logical part of her mind was screaming that this went against everything she had ever been taught. How could she betray that?

"I'm so sorry," Dawn whispered as a tear leaked from the corner of her eye.

And then she plunged the stake deep into Spike's chest.


	31. Chapter 31

**A/N: **I hope people weren't too upset by the cliffhanger at the end of the last chapter. This chapter should help ease your worries. As I mentioned in some earlier author's notes, most of these chapters are just revised versions of what I'd written before. Now, I'm finally getting into some new material. About half of this chapter is completely new, and the next chapter will be entirely new material. Hope you enjoy!

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Spike let out a shout of pain as he felt the stake slide into him. The stake was buried deep in the muscle of his chest…but nowhere near his heart. He pulled it out with a grimace, letting the bloodied piece of wood fall to the ground. Normally a wound like this would have him moving gingerly for days, but apparently the power in Dawn's blood was as potent as ever. Even though he'd only been able to steal a few drops earlier as they'd been getting…reacquainted…it was enough to cause the torn flesh of his chest to begin to knit back together before his very eyes. 

"You missed, luv."

Dawn stood above him with tears streaming down her face, her eyes vacant with shock. "I couldn't do it. After all I've read about the evil you've done, the pain you've caused, I couldn't kill you. What is wrong with me?"

Spike arose from his kneeling position and approached the trembling girl with caution. "There's nothing wrong with you, pet. Maybe you aren't physically capable of destroying the one being on this planet that can restore you to your full potential."

Spike closed the distance between them and pulled Dawn into his arms. "Or maybe it's our connection. Perhaps your body remembers what your mind can't. How would you ever live with yourself after killing your lover?" Spike whispered this last part into Dawn's ear, playfully nipping her neck after he'd finished.

Dawn tensed at Spike's words. "We...we were lovers? As in doing the nasty on a regular basis?"

"Not quite," Spike chuckled. "When we were first together, you were barely fifteen, and you clung to your oh-so-precious virginity with the tenacity that all you bloody Summers women seem to possess." Spike pressed his forehead against Dawn's. "But we were lovers nonetheless. Mind, body and soul."

"Wow," Dawn breathed with a feigned sigh. "That sounds awfully sappy for a bloodthirsty vampire with a penchant for railroad spikes." Despite her sarcasm, she did not try to remove herself from Spike's embrace.

"I'll level with you, pet. There were some...shall we say...mitigating circumstances. This wretched government agency called the Initiative took it upon themselves to use me as a lab rat. They collared me with an electronic chip that they embedded into my skull. Ravaged me with unbearable pain any time I tried to harm a human."

"That sounds awful," Dawn cringed. "I prefer kill or be killed. Torture was never my thing."

"Maybe it was karma, luv, for all the suffering I inflicted upon others, because it was certainly the worst bloody torture I could imagine. Having to help the do-good Slayer and her gang of Scoobies just to be thrown a bag of blood and some smokes every now and again. It was awful. But I can't regret it, because it was that very situation that brought us together. You fell in love with me while I was leashed. And you continued to love me once I was free. That fact alone is why the Slayer and all her precious friends are still alive today. Your love saved us all, pet."

"Sounds like something out of a fairytale," Dawn murmured.

"Right up there with the Brothers Grimm," Spike answered. "And now that I have you again, I'm never letting go."

Dawn felt lulled by Spike's words. The longer she stayed in his arms and the more she heard him talk of their past, the stronger her connection to him felt. She couldn't have explained it if she tried, but somehow being there with him seemed _right_.

For a few minutes they just stood there, adjusting to the sensation of being together, Dawn cradled against Spike's chest. Then Spike cupped Dawn's face, tilting her head up to meet his. He leaned down slowly, making it obvious that if she didn't pull away, he was going to kiss her. When his lips were mere millimeters from hers, he whispered "last chance." He held that position for several long moments, listening as Dawn's pulse began to race and her breaths came in rapid pants, before pulling her into a kiss.

As their lips met, Dawn let out a deep moan of pleasure, and Spike lost all semblance of control. That small affirmation from Dawn was like the release of a floodgate. He couldn't restrain himself any longer. He'd waited far too long, even holding out until she was 17 to allow her to grow into a young woman and a capable fighter (and hopefully be less tenacious about clinging to her virginity as she had been in the past).

Now that he had her in his arms once more, his hands roamed her body greedily. He began to lavish kisses on her neck, while at the same time his fingers traced a path up the inside of her thigh. He allowed his fangs to make the shallowest of scratches against her throat, and he was delighted to see that her reaction to that particular tactic still caused her to arch her back and writhe against him.

As her hips bucked forward from Spike's attention to her neck, Dawn's pelvis collided with his exploring fingers, causing her to let out a small gasp. Spike almost wished that Dawn shared her sister's poor taste in patrolling garb…a mini skirt would make his efforts that much easier. But he contented himself with pushing his fingers in hard, rhythmic circles against the denim of her practical black jeans.

Dawn's fingernails clutched at Spike's back as her body responded to his ministrations. Her hips rocked in time with the rhythm of his fingers, and as Dawn neared her peak, Spike's other hand crept to the waistband of her pants, undoing the button and slowly lowering the zipper. Dawn was too incoherent to notice anything until Spike broke contact for the briefest of moments to slide his hand inside her panties and thrust his fingers against her bare flesh. Dawn's eyes flew wide open as she suddenly realized the intimate position she was in with a creature that was supposed to be her mortal enemy. "No," she cried out, weakly trying to push Spike away from her even as her body ached for him to continue what he was doing.

"You don't mean that, luv," Spike growled, his eyes glowing bright yellow in his lust.

Dawn whimpered as Spike tried to slide her jeans off her hips. "Aren't you supposed to wake up Sleeping Beauty before you ravage her?" Dawn cried, fear beginning to creep into her voice.

Spike backed away from her with preternatural speed, causing Dawn to cling to the side of the crypt in order to remain standing. His frustration rolled off him in waves. "I don't quite get what you are going on about, but I won't take you by force!"

Dawn took a tentative step towards Spike, instinctively wanting to comfort him, but then she thought better of it. Instead, she held her ground as firmly as she could, taking a moment to surreptitiously refasten some of her clothing before trying to state her case. "Spike, you don't understand. This grand love that you have been talking about...it doesn't exist for me. Not yet at least. Even if my body remembers your touch, my mind doesn't remember loving you. I need my memories back, or anything that happens here will be a shadow of what you really want. Don't we both deserve more than that?"

"This job didn't come with an instruction manual. Did it ever occur to you that I don't actually _know_ how to give them back?"

Dawn stared at him in shock. "I…I'm sorry. I _hadn't_ actually thought of that," she said quietly. "Maybe we can get Giles to do some research."

"Bugger that," Spike said angrily. "He wasn't all too keen on how I acquired your memories. I doubt whatever the reverse is will be any less shocking to his tweed-clad psyche."

"How _did_ it happen? No one ever told me about that."

Spike approached Dawn and ran his finger over her throat, where two ever so faint scars still marred her skin. "I drained you dry, pet, much to your insisting. When I was through, I had your memories locked inside of my skull, and your infant body in my arms."

Spike began caressing the side of Dawn's neck, lulling her once more with his presence. "Do you think you have to do it again to reverse the process?" Dawn whispered.

"Perhaps...Do you trust me?"

"No," Dawn murmured even as she tilted her head to the side in silent acceptance.

"Just relax," Spike said softly. He began rubbing her back rhythmically, planting soft kisses up and down her throat. He waited until her whole body was languid before gently sinking his fangs into her, reopening his old mark. He drank slowly, savoring the feeling of being able to feed deeply from her again. The awakening of her Slayer abilities gave her blood a new taste, adding an earthy overtone to the sweetness and light that normally flavored her blood.

As always, he felt the pull to drink more and more, but as he approached Dawn's breaking point, he felt a slight foreboding, as if something were about to go horribly wrong. Far back in the recesses of his mind, he felt the faint itch that something like this had happened before, but the mewling sounds Dawn was making, coupled with her hands frantically clinging to his back, made all coherent thought flee from his mind. So it was mostly a surprise when he was flung back with great force into the nearest headstone.

"Bloody hell!" Spike yelled, clutching his head where it had struck the marble.

"Spike!" Dawn exclaimed, rushing towards him on wobbly legs. "What happened?" she asked as she knelt next to him, gingerly reaching out to touch where he had been wounded.

"Guess that's your body's way of telling me to back off," Spike grimaced. "Now that I think about it, the same thing happened years ago when you asked me to turn you into a vampire. Somehow it slipped my mind," he said with a lascivious grin.

"I asked you to turn me?" Dawn asked, looking rather dubious.

"Heh...long story, for another time. Better that we focus on the present problem, no?"

Dawn ran her finger across the trickle of blood that had started to run down the side of Spike's face. "Do you think that...maybe we have to reverse the process?" she asked nervously.

Spike looked troubled for a moment. "When you were very young, I gave you small amounts of my blood over the years to help keep our bond strong, but I don't know what will happen if you take too much. I don't want to see you thrown through a couple cement slabs for your trouble."

"Then we'll go slow," Dawn said as she crawled into Spike's lap.

"Well aren't you the forward one?" Spike said with a smirk.

Dawn cradled the side of his face in her hand. "There is something about you that's calling to me, and it feels...good. Better than anything has felt in a long while. I owe it to myself to explore that."

"Explore all you like," Spike groaned, enjoying the feeling of Dawn straddling him. He pulled against her hips, causing her to grind against him. "But just out of curiosity, how are you planning on getting the blood out, pet? You don't have these..." he said, flashing his fangs.

Dawn reached behind her and pulled a knife from the small of her back. With a push of the button, the blade slid out with a soft click. "A girl's got to have her toys," Dawn said with an impish grin.

"Then let's play," Spike growled, his eyes shifting back and forth from blue to yellow in barely contained lust.

Dawn traced the edge of the knife against the tender skin of Spike's neck, running it up and down as Spike tilted his head back in pleasure. "Do you trust me," Dawn cooed in an echo of Spike's earlier question.

"Completely," Spike replied.

Upon hearing that, Dawn pushed the knife against his skin, drawing a trace amount of blood. Spike arched his back and moaned, causing Dawn to dig the knife in deeper than she had intended. Blood began to flow down Spike's neck in a steady stream. Dawn watched the rivulets of blood for a moment before reaching out and lapping at the garnet-colored liquid with her tongue. She worked her way up to the wound on his neck, sucking hard at the cut while wrapping her legs around him and digging her nails into his shoulders.

Spike was in ecstasy, reveling in the experience of having a human feed off of him. He moaned, digging his fangs into his lower lip as he tried to maintain some semblance of control. Her rhythmic sucking was sending pulses of pleasure straight down to his groin. If she kept this up, he would be hard pressed to keep his promise to not ravage her until after she had regained her memories.

Dawn saw the trickle of blood that was leaking from his wounded lip, and she kissed her way up from his throat to his lips. Spike growled and pulled her close, nipping at her lower lip until she had a wound to match his own. And as their blood began to mingle together, Spike felt an eerie sensation, as if the whole world had suddenly shifted in some unexplainable way.

Everything felt crisper…sharper…more intense. Just the touch of her skin against his was orgasmic. And where their two wounded lips touched, he felt as if his soul was touching hers…it was an intimacy far deeper than he'd felt the first time they'd established a blood connection. He roughly grabbed her face with both hands, ensuring that their blood continued to mingle. Then Spike felt a sudden swelling of pressure in his mind, as if his entire essence wanted to burst forth from his body and merge with Dawn's.

Like the first time Spike created a blood bond with Dawn, he was assaulted with memories. But this time, they were _actual_ memories…not fabrications jammed into her head by well-meaning monks. The first memories were the most recent. He saw fights with vampires and demons and various other things that go bump in the night. He winced at her (infrequent) defeats and felt a swell of pride at her many victories. He saw the Watcher training up Dawn to be Buffy's replacement. He moved backwards through her memories, watching her go from skilled and competent to clumsy and inexperienced and marveling at how little time the transition took.

And he began to see other things…normal, domestic things that he had prayed she would have. Ballet recitals…school plays…birthday parties. Thanksgiving dinners with friends and family. There were even a few fuzzy memories of him tucked away in there, from the few times he had visited her as a very young child.

But then the visions began to blur and fade until he reached a vast void. It was like flipping through a novel and finding that the majority of the pages had been removed. And something in Spike recognized that _he _was the one with those missing pages. It was up to him to fill in the blanks.

Something instinctual in him knew what to do. It wasn't like when he took pen to paper and wrote his (bloody awful) poetry. There was no thought or composition involved. There was just the pressure of knowledge that was not his own straining to be released, and all Spike had to do was relax and let it flow out of him and into Dawn.

As the transfer began, an unearthly glow began to emanate from Spike's entire body. The dormant energy that had lain hidden within him the past 17 years was suddenly awake, and it lit Spike up from within. At the point of transfer, where their lips were joined, the glow became a white hot river flowing from out of Spike's mouth and into Dawn.

In Spike's mind, he could see the void in Dawn's mind slowing filling. Like a film set on fast forward, scattered images flickered through his mind. He tried to grasp what he was seeing, but the knowledge was not meant for him. He was merely the vessel, and he was being poured out. At first, the memories left him at a gentle trickle. But gradually, the flow increased in speed until it was a raging torrent. And as the last of Dawn's memories began to leave him, Spike found that he had to fight to retain his own memories, like a swimmer clinging to a rock in the midst of a raging river, lest his own mind get carried away in the exodus of knowledge from his brain.

In his mind, Spike thought of his love for Dawn…it was the rock he clung to. He thought of how devastated she would be if she were to finally regain all of her knowledge and power only to find him an empty husk, his memories and personality nothing more than a footnote in the grand encyclopedia of knowledge that had been poured into her. And that love is what allowed him to retain his sanity (what little of it he ever had).

Spike could not have said how long the entire process took. Several lifetimes' worth of information had just been transferred. Spike felt as though he had been sitting there joined with Dawn for years, there bodies still and unmoving as statues. If it weren't for his little allergy to the sun, he could easily have been convinced that was the case. But though his body was certainly a bit stiff from holding the same position for too long, the sky was thankfully still dark and the scenery was unchanged. They were still sitting in the cemetery, and he had not been destroyed by the morning sun before completing his duty. In all likelihood, only an hour or so had passed.

Gently, Spike released the vice-like grip he had on Dawn's face, finally breaking the intense kiss that had initiated the return of her memories. Her whole body was trembling, and he placed a hand on her arm to steady her. Gently, he brushed her hair away from her face and gazed into her eyes. And that's when he saw it…_his_ Dawn staring back at him with love written across her face.

"I remember…" she whispered shakily, a tremulous smile flitting across her face before she collapsed, unconscious, into his arms.


	32. Chapter 32

**A/N: **This chapter is a bit short because it's a transition chapter. However, the material is one hundred percent new! I'm not sure how many more chapters there will be, but I feel like it's getting close to the end. Hope you enjoy!

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Dawn was floating in a sea of white. There was nothing to mar the purity of it…no ground beneath her or sky above. Because she remembered that at one time she had a body, she looked down to where her left hand should be to see if she still possessed form, but she was again met with nothing but whiteness. Her mind alone survived, a consciousness adrift in a sea of knowledge. With a force of will, she continued staring at where her hand should be, making her mind remember its shape. Gradually, a faint outline appeared, as if her body were dissolving in reverse. 

When she once again possessed arms and legs and a mouth to speak, she shouted out "Hello!" into the nothingness. But she was in a space devoid of matter, and no sound actually left her lips. She was a lone consciousness in a sea of pure energy.

Suddenly, in the distance, she saw a small speck…something that was separate from the whiteness, like herself. At least, she assumed it was in the distance. With no landscape to compare it to, it was difficult to determine things like size and length. Dawn wished to examine this other entity, so she willed herself closer. She had assumed that it would take ages, like the way an astronaut awkwardly floats through space when there is no gravity. But in this place, thought was the impetus for everything, and in a blink of an eye, she was facing the only other object in this vast sea of white.

And the other entity was herself.

Or so she thought, at first. The other girl had her form. She possessed the same face and body and eyes. But her hair was pure white while Dawn's remained a dark chestnut brown, and her face had an eerie ageless quality while Dawn's was full of youth and vigor.

"Who are you?" Dawn asked. Again, there was no physical noise…no sound vibrations flowing through the air to reach the other person's ear. But in this land of thought, the other girl was able to understand the question easily, and she responded with her mind alone, not even bothering to move her lips.

"I am you," she said serenely. "And you are me."

"I don't understand…how can there be two of me?" Dawn asked. "And what is this place? Where are we?"

"Our body sleeps, but our mind is very much active. I tried to exert control once the transfer was done so that I could reassure Spike that his efforts were not in vain, but the body cannot follow two masters. We must be unified in purpose or we will never regain consciousness. This place is where all of our thoughts and knowledge dwell. I did not think to give it form. I have long since grown out of the need to give shape to what I know. The shape acts as a metaphor for the unskilled, but it dilutes the purity of the knowledge. However, if it will make you more comfortable, I can give form to what is around you."

With a wave of her hand, the elder Dawn dismissed the whiteness. In its place, a vast library rose up around them. The shelves soared over their heads, and they extended so far into the distance in both directions that it was impossible to see where they ended.

Dawn gasped in shock. "_This_ is what Spike just dumped into my brain? I'm never going to be able to read all of this. It would take like a hundred years."

"It would take far longer than that," the elder Dawn replied. "My journey took thousands of years, and these are my records."

"How is that going to do me any good if it would take me just as long to learn all of it?" Dawn asked, her voice filled with frustration.

The white haired version of Dawn pulled a book off of a shelf near her. But when she opened it, the pages were blank. The book gave off a soft glow, and the younger Dawn was unconsciously drawn to it.

"Would it not be easier for me to read one book than for you to read thousands?" the elder Dawn asked quietly.

The younger Dawn felt entranced by the book. She sensed that it was a place of warmth and safety where she could finally lay down her burdens and rest. She extended her hand towards the glowing pages, and she could feel her essence being drawn into the book. A tendril of light flowed from her hands into the tome, and slowly the pages began to fill with words. Gradually, her body began to lose shape, becoming translucent and undefined. It wasn't until she glanced down and saw herself disappearing that Dawn realized what was being done to her. With a look of horror, Dawn forced herself to back away from the book, re-exerting her will and solidifying her form.

"No!" Dawn exclaimed, causing the vast library to shake with the intensity of her fury. "What you're trying to do…what you're asking for…it's not fair! You've had thousands of years to live…I've only had 17. Why should I have to give up my life for you? I don't want to be locked away in some dusty old book while you get to live_my_ life!"

"You talk of fairness?" the elder Dawn said, her voice full of bitterness. "The higher powers stole me from the life I called my own. I was taken away from my family and friends and the man I loved, and I was told to go on a journey…a journey that was practically endless…all for the greater good. My one scant reward was that I would get to go back and use my hard fought knowledge while surrounded by the people I love. What right do you have to deny me that?"

"These people that you are talking about…Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander…everyone….they don't love _you_, they love _me_!" Dawn shouted. "They barely knew you. Most of what they remember about you is total fiction, stupid fake memories shoved into their brains by the monks that put you…us…into a human body. They only knew you…the_real_ you…for about a year. Then you disappeared to go on your journey, and you left me in your place. Did you think that the body you left behind would just grow like a vegetable until it was big enough for you to step into? It doesn't work that way. I have a mind of my own, and if you lock me away in one of your books, it's no different than murder. Do you really want to go murdering someone that is loved by the people you say you care _so_ much about? How can you say you love them if you're willing to hurt them like that?"

The elder Dawn pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a harsh laugh. "The Powers never do make things easy, do they? I had assumed that the transition would be seamless…that I would be poured into a new body and our memories would merge flawlessly."

"What a surprise…things didn't go the way you planned. I would think after living for a millennium or three, you'd get used to that," Dawn replied sarcastically.

"Without me, this knowledge," the elder Dawn said, waving her arm at the vast array of books surrounding them, "is utterly useless to you. If I did as you wished and surrendered total control to you, allowed my mind to be submerged, you would not be able to access it. Without the presence of my conscious mind to organize it, this library would be nothing but a chaotic sea of information, and it would drive you mad."

"I don't see why this has to be an all or nothing sort of deal," the younger Dawn said. "I don't want to die…you don't want to die…so why don't we just share? I mean, like you said earlier, you are me, so I'm guessing we'll probably get along…you know, once we get past this whole wanting to kill each other thing. You could be like my own inner Giles."

"Two minds sharing one form…it certainly has been done before," the elder Dawn mused.

"Yeah…you keep saying that I can't use all this knowledge on my own…so maybe you could just help me out instead of trying to shove me into one of your books," the younger Dawn suggested. "I have a life I want to live, and I don't mind taking you along for the ride. Hell, I might even let you drive from time to time. But no matter how old you are and how much knowledge you have, this is still _my _body. I have squatter's rights. And I have no problem tearing this whole library to pieces if it means I get to keep on kicking for a while longer."

The elder Dawn felt a shudder go through her at the power of the other one's words. She could feel the truth of it. While she had lived for countless years, the true power lay with her younger self. The physical body is what held the power of the Key, and if the two of them fought, the current owner of the body would have a distinct advantage. If things came down to a fight, massive amounts of brain damage would likely be inflicted upon the body, making it useless to both of them.

"You are right to say that you have a life of your own to live…and it is a life I would have difficulty stepping directly into. It is a balm to my soul to know that those I cared dearly about in my youth still walk the earth, but even if I could step back in time to the very moment I left, my relationships with them would be forever altered by the wealth of experiences I have acquired since we last saw one another. There is only one person with whom I wish to pick up precisely where I left off, and if you are willing to acquiesce to that request, then I believe we will be able to make this union work."

"You're talking about that blond hottie, aren't you? Mr. Vessel guy."

The elder Dawn smiled, making her placid, ageless face suddenly seem young and radiant. "Spike…" she murmured lovingly. "In all of my journeying, I never truly had room for love. I was tossed from one dimension to another on the whims of the higher powers. I feared what would happen to my sanity if I allowed myself to love, only to have it ripped away over and over again. So I chose instead to cut away that part of my life. I had many friends and guides along the way, but never lovers. I took all the love I had to give, and I wrote it in a book labeled 'Spike'. Then I locked it away in the recesses of my mind. Occasionally, I would take it out and gaze upon my memories of our brief time together…it was a comfort when I felt particularly lost and alone…but I reserved that part of my heart for him and him alone. If I cannot even have that, then of what use is everything I've learned?"

The elder Dawn then extended her arm, and a book flew off the shelves into her hand. It was bound in rich leather with the word "Spike" ornately engraved into it. She handed the book to her younger self. The moment the younger Dawn opened the book, white light came pouring out of it and images began to flash across her eyes. She saw how Spike came to love the Key and how he was changed by her presence. She could feel the depth of the other Dawn's feelings for this vampire as if they were her own. However, she had gained more than just the stored memories within Spike when the transfer took place. She had also seen into Spike's mind and learned much about him.

The younger Dawn let out a weary sigh. "You just had to go and fall for a vamp, didn't you? I don't care how nice he seems or how much he loves you, deep down, he's rotten at the core." Dawn held out her hand, and a new book materialized in it. It was bound in human flesh and reeked of death. Surrounding it was a malevolent black and red energy that pulsed like a sluggish heartbeat. She handed the book to the elder version of herself.

"See this…_this_ is what I learned about Spike when he worked his vessel mojo. I'll admit, when he first showed up, I got caught up in his pretty face and smooth words. He obviously knew all the buttons to push to make this body tingle. But he's a _murderer_, plain and simple. You want to know what he did to pass the time while you were away…he went out and used up _dozens _of girls…girls that looked just like us. He made them fall in love with him, and then he killed them because they weren't you. I'm sorry, but that's not exactly my idea of romantic."

The elder Dawn opened the book she had been handed, allowing the words to flow into her and become part of her vast library of knowledge. Silently, a tear leaked out of the corner of her eye. "I did not realize he would be driven to such lengths while I was away," she whispered.

"I'm not sure what you expected from a guy who got his nickname from driving railroad spikes through people for fun," the younger Dawn said in annoyance. "But our job is to get rid of the bad guys…purge evil from the world and all that jazz. And this guy is bad…there's no denying it."

The elder Dawn was silent for a moment, her mind wrestling with the difficult decision laid before her. Finally, she looked her younger self in the eye and said, "I swear to you, if you allow our minds to merge and coexist, I will use the knowledge I have acquired to neutralize this evil. You are correct…he cannot be allowed to go on as he is."

A satisfied smile lit up the younger Dawn's face. "That sounds like a plan I can live with," she said, extending her hand in friendship to her older self. The moment there hands touched, there was a brilliant flash of light, and Dawn found herself sitting upright in bed, gasping for breath.

She was finally whole.


	33. Chapter 33

**Author's Note: **I've been having some major writer's block with this fic. I feel like the closer I get to the end, the harder it is to write. But I promise that no matter how long it takes, I WILL finish this fic eventually. Sorry that this chapter is a little short. I decided I wanted a chapter break between Dawn getting reacquainted with the Scoobies and her being properly reunited with Spike. Next chapter, there will definitely be some Spike/Dawn lovin'!

* * *

Dawn sat upright in the middle of a narrow bed, and she could feel the connection to the other entity in her mind. The other girl was now an extension of herself (or perhaps it was the other way around). Regardless, they were now two parts of the same whole rather than separate beings warring for control of a single body.

For a moment, Dawn felt like she was observing her surroundings from a distance, but then she felt her other half recede, and her consciousness was suddenly in the foreground. In the back of her mind, she heard her younger self whisper, _go ahead and get reacquainted. I can sit in the passenger seat for a while_.

On instinct, Dawn immediately began soaking up all the information she could acquire from her surroundings, impartially collecting data without thought or emotion. It was a skill she had acquired during her many years of traveling—the ability to absorb information in exact detail so that she could think it over later, presumably when her life was in less danger.

So, as Dawn viewed her surroundings, it was with a cold neutrality. She noted the IV in her arm and the astringent smell of the room and surmised that she was in a hospital. She saw Giles with his arm around Buffy. Giles' hair was completely gray now, but he looked like he had weathered the years well. Buffy still had an air of youth about her, as if being a Slayer had slowed the aging process, but there were still a couple small wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. Of course, the biggest change was that she appeared to be about eight or nine months pregnant. It was obvious that she was married to Giles and that they were planning on starting a family.

Xander, Willow and Faith were in the room as well. Faith's presence seemed accepted by the group as something normal. Xander, who was now graying at the temples, was holding hands with each of them, and the three of them were wearing matching rings that had a braided three strand design, a likely indicator that they were in some form of relationship as well. Anya was not present.

All the people in the room were giving her worried looks, likely indicating that there had been some sort of magical backlash released into the room prior to her awakening.

It only took Dawn a matter of seconds to collect all of this information, but as it hit her how different they all were from the people she had left behind, a wave of emotion overtook her.

"Wrong…wrong…wrong," she said, starting at a whisper and increasing in volume until she was almost shouting. "Everything's all wrong!"

"Dawn, sweetie," Buffy said, "I'm so glad you're finally awake! Now, if you just tell us _what_ is wrong, we can try to fix it together, like we always do," she said, trying to keep her voice calm and soothing.

In preparation for her reunion, Dawn had mentally opened the book labeled _Before the Journey_, reawakening the memories of her former life. The memories wrapped around her mind and consumed her conscious thoughts, allowing her to don the persona of her old self…the person she had been before the Powers That Be high-jacked her life. But her old life was seventeen years out of date, and even at a glance, Dawn could tell that so much had changed. She was having some adjustment issues.

"_You_ are all wrong," she said despondently. "Buffy…you're _pregnant_! How can a Slayer be pregnant…what with the slaying and all? And you're married to Giles? How gross is that…he's your Watcher for goodness sake!"

"And you three," she said, whirling and pointing towards Xander, Willow and Faith. "Where do I even start? I mean, last I remember, Faith was still one of the bad guys. Willow, did Tara mean so little to you that you just went and shacked up with the first person who was willing to throw you a bone? And what about Anya? I can't imagine she's happy about you're little arrangement. The Anya I remember would never have stood for any of this."

Shock was written across everyone's faces after hearing Dawn's outburst, and Willow looked especially pained. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but you're being incredibly unfair," Willow said, a mixture of heartbreak and anger in her voice. "Tara has been dead for over seventeen years…and Anya…she's been dead almost as long. Just because we moved on doesn't mean we didn't love them."

"Yeah, and Faith here has been fighting the good fight for over a decade," Xander chimed in with a nervous laugh, slinging an arm over Faith's shoulder before she could do something brash like lunge at Dawn and try to beat some sense into her. "She's the one who helped train you when you took over for Buffy as a Slayer. You were totally psyched about finally getting to kick some evil butt. And when Buffy told everyone that she was going to do what no Slayer in history has ever done…retire and have a family…you threw her a _party._ And I know this whole thing between Willow, Faith and me threw you for a loop at first, but you've had a whole year to adjust. The last time you commented on our…relationship…the only thing you had to say was that it sounded like 'a kinky fun time' to you. I know you've just been though a mind blowing experience…literally…but I don't get where all this hostility is coming from."

The worried look on Giles' face had grown deeper and deeper as he watched Dawn interact with the people in the room. Finally, he cut in, voicing his fears.

"Dawn, my dear, do you remember anything from the last seventeen years?" Giles asked gravely. "Spike was not exactly…forthcoming…when he called to inform us that he had taken you to the hospital. He merely stated that your memories had been restored. Given that the sun had already risen by the time we all arrived, we did not have the chance to question him further. You must tell me…is there…is there anything of my daughter left in you?" he asked, his voice choking up at the end.

Everyone in the room gasped. No one else had considered the possibility that the Dawn they had grown to love over the past seventeen years might cease to exist once Spike completed his duty as the vessel. As one, they turned to look at Dawn, their breath held in fear of what she might say.

A flash of green lit up Dawn's eyes for a second, and her demeanor shifted abruptly, going from outraged and confused to calm and peaceful. "We remember," she said, her voice taking on an unearthly tone, as if multiple people were speaking in unison.

"Shit…now that can't be good," Faith cursed in surprise.

"Our mind is vast," she continued. "Just as you could not hope to simultaneously read thousands of books in the same instant, neither can we access all of our knowledge at once. The information must be compartmentalized. It is necessary for the large majority of what we know to lie dormant if we wish to remain sane. The Dawn that is your daughter exists within this mind, as does the Dawn that was Buffy's sister. And then there is the Dawn that none of you know…the Dawn that traveled to the demon dimensions to become a storehouse of knowledge on their kind. These three personas coexist within this mind."

"Well, damn." Faith said. "Does that mean you've got some sort of freaky multiple personality disorder going on? Like, if one of you goes all Norman Bates and tries to stab someone in the shower, will the other ones remember?"

Dawn let out a soft chuckle. "The knowledge of all future experiences will be shared between us," Dawn said. "We were…hasty…in our decision to let the youngest of us come forward. It has been very long indeed since we accessed the memories of the time before our journeying began. That personality has been locked away for so long that when the memories were unleashed, they consumed all of our conscious thought. We will make an effort to integrate our memories more fully so that this sort of mistake does not occur again."

"So, is it always going to be like this from now on, with the 'we' and the 'us' and the horror movie sound effects coming out of your throat?" Buffy asked, her voice full of false cheer that did a poor job of covering up how worried she was about her daughter.

"Each persona has its uses," she replied, the serene tone of the 'elder Dawn' coming out as that personality came to the forefront. "As the one who has lived in this timeframe and been in possession of this body the longest, the person you remember as your daughter, the one you have spent the last seventeen years loving, will be predominant. Most times, she will be in full control, and I…the one who actually collected the knowledge now stored within this mind…will act as what your daughter calls an 'inner Watcher' and feed her bits of stored away knowledge as they become relevant. The Dawn from before the journey is the most equipped of us to deal with Spike. Even as we speak, I am integrating her memories into those of your daughter to prevent further confusion. This should, in effect, keep the dominant personalities down to two. It is not possible for me to merge completely with your daughter at this time. The amount of knowledge I have amassed is too extensive. In order to preserve your daughter's personality, I have opted to share this knowledge in small doses. Each time she accesses a piece of it, she will absorb a piece of me, and we will take another step towards being a single mind. But this is a process that will take many years. It will not be accomplished in any of your lifetimes. At times, it may be necessary for me to come to the forefront, as I am doing now, but we shall try to keep the 'horror movie sound effects' to a minimum," Dawn said with a small smile.

"You mentioned something about 'dealing with Spike'," Xander interjected. "These past seventeen years we all sort of tip-toed around the fact that he's a menace to society, given the fact that he was carrying around important bits of you inside of him. But you've got all your memories back now…he's not a vessel for anything anymore. He's just plain ol' Spike the vampire, and I say that his get out of jail free card just expired. I was kind of hoping that 'dealing with Spike' was your nice way of saying 'drive a stake through his heart'."

"I had much the same conversation with my other half," Dawn said, a myriad of emotions crossing her face. "I can see why you two get along so well."

"Does that mean Spike will be going on a rapid weight loss program in the near future? Cuz I have a vacuum cleaner that's just his size," Xander replied with a cheeky smile.

"We have plans for Spike," Dawn replied secretively.

"Hey, now!" Willow said. "We're a team…remember? You do remember, right? Maybe you should let our Dawn do some talking, because the Dawn _I_ know wouldn't try to take out one of the most dangerous vampires alive without backup."

The air in the room suddenly crackled with magic, and the curtains to the window were drawn aside by an unseen force, allowing the dim rays of the setting sun into the room. "I have learned a few new tricks since you last saw me," Dawn said with a confident smile. "I agree that Spike must be dealt with…but it's something I need to do alone. And I need to do it soon," she said with a glance towards the window. "Apparently I've been unconscious most of the day, and I know that once the sun sets, Spike will return to the hospital. I'd rather avoid a confrontation in such a public place."

"Not that we doubt your cool new powers, but are you sure you're up for a fight?" Buffy asked. "You've been out cold all day, and obviously your body has taken a major shock," she said, nodding towards the mirror hanging on the wall next to the bed.

Dawn turned to follow Buffy's gaze, staring at her reflection in the mirror. Her body looked frail in the hospital gown…but then…even the healthiest of people looked frail in a hospital gown. The real change was in her hair. A large streak of pure white now framed each side of her face, standing in stark contrast to the dark brown hair on the rest of her head. Dawn reached up to touch the hair in shock. It was an eerie reminder of the journey she had taken.

After taking a moment to compose herself, Dawn turned back to Buffy. "I assure you, I am strong enough to do what needs to be done. A new hairstyle is hardly going to change anything. If you really want to help, you'll show me where my clothes are. I certainly can't go to see Spike wearing a hospital gown."

"After it became obvious that it might take a while for you to awaken, your mother and I returned home and packed a small bag of your clothes." Giles said, handing her a travel bag. "Apparently, the clothing you arrived in was rather soaked in blood," he added, his voice carrying a clear tone of disapproval at Spike's method of returning Dawn's memories.

Buffy glared at her husband as if he had just committed an act of serious betrayal. "Don't _encourage_ her," she hissed.

"I'm not about to let my daughter walk out of here half drained of blood and barely conscious to face one of the most vicious vampires on Earth by herself," Giles said, trying to sooth his wife. "But I hardly see any harm in allowing her to get dressed."

Buffy half-heartedly grumbled her assent, and Dawn was allowed a few moments of privacy to slip into the bathroom and change out of her hospital gown. She casually pulled out her IV, wincing slightly as she pulled off the tape that was holding it in place. When she opened the travel bag Giles had given her, she smiled to see what was inside. There were actually two outfits to choose from. One was a simple, utilitarian set of sweat pants and a tank top. The other outfit was a white, frilly sundress, complete with matching shoes, underwear and other accessories…the perfect sort of thing to wear in the lovely Summer weather they'd been having recently. It didn't take a genius to figure out which parent had chosen each outfit.

Ironically, Dawn felt the sundress was the more practical of the two. After all, her mother had thoughtfully included a thigh harness for a stake and a matching purse containing a hair brush, some makeup, a cross pendant, and a bottle of holy water. Her father just didn't know how to accessorize like her mom.

Dawn carefully brushed out her hair and applied some light make up. She twirled in front of the full length mirror on the back of the bathroom door, admiring her reflection. Finally, she murmured to herself, "Let's do this." Then she drew back her fist and punched her reflection, shattering the mirror.

When her family heard the crash, they immediately raced to the bathroom and flung open the door. They arrived just in time to see Dawn standing in the middle of a pile of broken glass, her knuckles covered in blood.

The blood on her hand began to glow, and a portal appeared in front of her, where a few drops of her blood had hit the ground. "Sorry, guys," Dawn said apologetically before stepping into the portal and disappearing abruptly.

"Oh, now that's hardly fair," Xander grumbled as everyone stared in shock at the now vacant bathroom.


	34. Chapter 34

**Author's Note: **Normally, I use my author's notes to apologize profusely for the delay between chapters...but not this time! I had a couple really nice reviews for the last chapter, and I think my muse got inspired (see...feedback really does make me write faster!). This chapter is my longest one to date. It also most definitely earns the M rating. If sex scenes really aren't your thing, you might want to skip the second half of this chapter.

* * *

Dawn raced through the open portal and closed it behind her with an audible snap of magical energy. The last thing she needed was for her well-meaning family and friends to follow her into the ether between dimensions. She'd never actually tried bringing someone with her before, and she wasn't quite sure what the outcome would be. She had an unsettling feeling that if any of them tried it without her consciously helping them, the end result would be deadly.

Feeling secure in her getaway, Dawn stared down the hallway full of doors, a sight that had become quite familiar to her over time. For several years now, she had used this hallway as a refuge, but no matter how hard she'd tried, she'd never been able to get any of the doors aside from the one to Earth to open even a crack. She had always been reigned in, her curiosity stifled. But now she had the ability to open any door she liked and travel to amazing and terrifying worlds. They would no longer be locked to her.

For a moment, Dawn felt like a kid in a candy shop who had been given permission to take her pick of the store. She had the wild urge to go exploring.

_You forget,_ her inner voice said, _I have already traveled to all of these worlds. I can tell you anything you wish to know about them. We have more pressing responsibilities at the moment._

"Just because you got to go traveling doesn't mean that I don't want to do some exploring of my own. Having a ton of information downloaded into my brain isn't quite the same as getting to experience stuff first hand."

_Be that as it may, I_ _have finally, finally returned home from my journeying. I am not eager to embark on another trip just yet. There will be plenty of time for exploring at a later date…we are practically immortal, after all._

"You know," Dawn said absentmindedly, "if we're going to be having a lot of these inner arguments, I need to know what to call you."

_You are well aware of what my name is._

"Oh, c'mon now. You have to admit that if we both go by Dawn, it's just going to get confusing real quick."

_I have already had my life stolen from me for the 'greater good'. Must I give up my name as well?_

If Dawn didn't know any better, she'd say the older, wiser version of herself was sounding downright petulant…although if she'd been tossed around by the Powers That Be as much as her elder self had, she might be a bit grumpy too.

"How about Aurora? We were studying mythology in school, and the teacher said that she was the goddess of the dawn in Roman mythology. It's kind of fitting, don't you think? I can be Dawn, and you can be my inner goddess. Don't think of it as giving up your name…think of it as a name _upgrade_," Dawn said in a placating tone.

_Aurora...the name does have a certain ring to it, _she conceded. _And what you say has some logic to it. I certainly have changed drastically from who I once was. If you believe it will make cohabitating easier, I will consent to be called Aurora when we converse._

"Great!" Dawn replied. "Now if only all of our problems could be solved so easily."

_I sense that the matter of my name is not truly what is bothering you. I believe that you are stalling for time._

"Can you blame me for needing some time to adjust? When you linked your memories from before your wild and crazy journey to my conscious mind, my whole world turned upside down…_again_. I now have two sets of conflicting memories from birth to age fifteen. Let's say, for example, someone asks me what I did for my fifteenth birthday. Do I say 'oh, my mom Buffy threw me a surprise birthday party,' or do I say 'that's the day my mom Joyce died and I took a swan dive off a tower into a portal to another dimension.'

_Well, the latter would certainly be more of a conversation stopper,_ Aurora replied dryly. _But it may be simpler to think of the memories in terms of calendar date. Our age has always been a difficult thing to quantify. When we were first given physical form, we were placed in the body of a fourteen-year old girl and given false memories of a life that did not exist. In physical years, we were an infant. In mental years, we were a teenager. And our essence was, and always will be, ancient. You will have an easier time if you cast off notions of age. If you think 'such and such event occurred on this date', the memories from before and after our journey will take on a linear form and be much easier to cope with._

_But of course…you already know all of this,_ Aurora said after a brief pause. _It is not the overlapping of the memories that is vexing you…it is the new memories and emotions you have for Spike that are causing you turmoil._

"You know, it's totally unfair that you get to know what I'm feeling without me telling you," Dawn grumbled.

_If at some point you wish to have a discussion about what is fair and what is not fair, I would be happy to oblige you, but I guarantee that I would win that contest. However, I do not believe dwelling on life's injustices will be productive for either of us. Even if the merging of our memories must occur slowly, we are still one being. I will always be able to sense your emotions._

"Fine…you're always going to know how I feel. I get it…I don't have to like it, but I get it. But since you're so in the know about my emotions, tell me, how am I supposed to carry through with your little plan for Spike when I feel so conflicted? I remember loving him…loving him so much that I thought I would die without him. But I also remember hating him for all of the terrible things he's done, and it makes me want to ram a stake into his heart and be done with him. Because there's no guarantee that what you've got planned is really going to fix the problem. He could be just as evil when we're done as he was before. The world is chock full of evil people…that's why we have prisons. I'm not sure if I want to sacrifice my virginity to a monster just because you think your spell will work better if he's getting all sexed up when you perform it."

_I should remind you that we are blood bound to Spike. If you were to ram a stake through his heart, you would inflict tremendous psychic trauma upon us. This is not just because I would mourn his loss. We are magically connected to him. While we are in other dimensions, that link becomes dormant, but it is still present. If ever Spike were to die, our best bet for survival would require us to be in an entirely different dimension so that we would have the buffer of time and space to shield us from the psychic blow. But even then, the pain would be terrible. While on Earth, our survival is linked to his. The depth of the connection is so deep that if he were to die, our mind would be crippled. It could take us years to recover, if we were able to survive at all._

"Ok…fine…no staking Spike. But can I tell you how much it scares me that our survival is dependant upon his? I mean, do you have _any_ idea how many fights he gets into? I don't want to end up a vegetable because he picks a fight with the wrong guy."

_That is why it would benefit us greatly if we were partnered with him. _

"I know…I know…you can't wait to bump uglies with him. But that brings me back to my earlier point…why do I have to sleep with him _before_ you do the spell? Couldn't we wait until he's not evil before I have to get naked with him?"

_As I said, we are blood bound to Spike. You may not have realized it, but you've had this bond with him since infancy. He merely strengthened the bond when transferring my memories into this body. That bond can be used as a telepathic link, allowing each of us to sense the other's emotions and even see out of the other's eyes if we so chose. Spike has had seventeen years to play around in your unguarded mind. I could try to shield you from him, but I have no guarantee that he wouldn't be able to break the shield and uncover our plans. And I'm sure he would become suspicious if we were suddenly guarding ourself against him. But if we approach him with a mind projecting lust and desire, I assure you that he will not feel the need to pry. Why would he need to look further if we give him exactly what he expects?_

"But still…couldn't we put the whammy on him before any clothes have to come off?"

_The chances of success increase dramatically if he is at his most vulnerable. The spell works best on a heart that is open and prepared to receive a wonderful gift._

"And you have the hots for him," Dawn replied teasingly. She could feel her own cheek's blush in response to Aurora's reaction.

_And I have the hots for him_, Aurora replied, not bothering with the futility of trying to hide the truth from her own self.

"He is pretty easy on the eyes," Dawn admitted with a sigh. "And I know, deep down, that everything you're telling me is true. I'm not sure you could lie to me even if you wanted to. I just…I just need a bit of time to get warmed up to the idea."

_I do understand…truly I do, but I think the time has come for us to act. I fear what will happen if our makeshift family reaches Spike before we do. I'm not certain they are aware that we are still bonded to Spike._

"Nothing like the fear of a persistent vegetative state to get a girl in the mood," Dawn grumbled, a jolt of panic racing through her.

Stepping towards the door to Earth, Dawn placed her hand in the center of it, causing it to turn transparent without actually opening it, revealing the empty bathroom of her hospital room.

_That's clever_, Aurora commented in a surprised tone. _I never thought to try something like that._

"Well, I've done a lot of camping in front of this particular door. One day I was talking to myself and saying how it would be great if I could see through the door without having to open it, and the door went all clear for me. It was a total accident, but it's been really useful."

_It's nice to know that there are still things left for me to learn. _

Dawn smiled in response to Aurora's sudden burst of happiness. She was just about to designate the coast as clear, when Willow appeared in front of the portal, her eyes covered in a black film.

"She's still here," Willow said, turning her head to speak to the rest of the people still in Dawn's hospital room. "The place where she went through…it just got thinner. If I focus, I can almost see her."

Willow turned back towards Dawn, her black eyes making her appear rather menacing. "You listen here young lady! Giles told me all about your popping in and out of dimensions trick. He said that you always show back up in pretty much the same spot, give or take a few feet. Now you march your butt right back into this room, or I'm coming to get you. You aren't the only one that knows how to travel to a different plane of existence."

Willow pounded her fist against the space where the portal was, and Dawn could see the air in front of her ripple, sending out concentric circles of energy.

"What do we do?" Dawn exclaimed. "I really don't think we have time to go back and explain the plan to everyone. I know for sure that mom and dad will flip out…Xander too. I think Faith would understand, but it would still take too long to get them all calmed down. We need to get away before sundown. I don't want Spike showing up there…not if he can go poking around in our head. Can you stop Willow from coming through to get us?"

_We are the Keeper of the Gates,_ Aurora replied. _None shall pass if we expressly forbid it._

As Aurora spoke the words, the portal back to Earth ceased its trembling and became like a solid piece of glass once more. On the other side of the doorway, Willow was vacantly staring in their direction, her eyes back to their normal color. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and a look of horror was written across her face.

"What have you done?" both Dawn and Willow asked in unison.

_It is the nature of the Key to both grant and deny access to other dimensions. I have cut off her ability to access other dimensions, and with it her ability to use magic. _

"I don't understand…I didn't think you needed to be an inter-dimensional traveler in order to use magic. I mean, Willow was floating pencils long before she had the ability to travel to higher planes of existence."

_Once, long ago, all dimensions were what you would call 'demon dimensions'. Humans had not yet come into existence. Some of these demons favored creation, and some destruction. There are legends throughout all of the dimensions surrounding the creation of humanity. The stories vary greatly, but one common thread is that they all state that humanity originated on Earth. Whether humans were created by an all-powerful God who crafted the entire universe or merely one of the Old Ones who felt bored, I cannot say. But for a time, humans were given protectors and sheltered from those who would do them harm. Eventually though, the other demons grew jealous and infiltrated their sanctuary, capturing most of the humans and breeding them for entertainment. They became highly regarded as prized pets. This is the reason you will find humans in so many dimensions now._

_But the original guardians managed to save a handful of their wards from being kidnapped and passed around like chattel. The guardians taught the remaining humans how to harness energy from the demons, to perform what we now call magic…that is the kernel of truth behind the legend of Prometheus. Because many of the demons did not have true flesh and blood bodies…they were creatures of pure energy given shape. The ability to tap into that energy is what allowed humans to prosper on Earth and the Old Ones to decline. Even to this day, humans on Earth possess the rudimentary skill to perform this sort of magic. It is the reason why symbols of faith such as the cross harm demons. The symbol is merely a conduit for a person's will power, and the burns the demons receive are caused by the sudden removal of a portion of the demon's energy._

_Eventually, using their new abilities, humans were able to cast out all but the lesser demons from the earthly realm and erect a barrier to prevent the more powerful demons from returning. But it was necessary for the shield to be peppered with tiny holes, small gateways to the other dimensions. Ironically, the very demons we are trying to keep out are the ones that power the barrier. The gateways allow for a constant source of energy for the barrier. The Key was created as a tool to manage this energy flow. Before we were given consciousness, we were simply used to close and open gates as needed. But now the scope of our ability has been broadened. We did not learn so much of the other dimensions merely to combat the demons. Every time we slay a demon, their energy is released into Earth's dimension, fueling the barrier. With vampires, this release is quite violent, causing their bodies and all that they touch to crumble to ash from the force of it. But not all demons are created equal. By knowing their kind, we can determine which to slay and which to allow to remain without endangering the world. In this way, balance is maintained._

Dawn's head was reeling from all this new information. "How did you learn all this?"

_The Powers That Be…they were once human…the very humans that were first taught how to harness the energy of the demons. They now watch over Earth from a higher plane and enlist the help of others to protect our world. _

"It's so weird to think that magic is really just demon energy. Does that mean that using magic is evil?"

_Energy is energy…it is what you do with the energy that makes it good or evil. But one does have to be careful. High level witches such as Willow are tapping directly into demon dimensions to fuel their magic, and there is the danger of actually drawing entire demons into one's body when trying to perform a powerful spell. That is why there are so many instances of magic users becoming possessed. For those with a strong force of will, they might actually convert entire demons into raw energy, but it is a risky business. Every time Willow's eyes go black with power, there is a demon just dying to enter her body and take up residence. I dare say that cutting Willow off for a short time might do her some good. _

"But we can turn it back on, right? I mean, I know Willow has had some brushes with magic abuse in the past, but she's been working really hard to control it. And she's pretty buddy buddy with some good guys in the higher planes. If we took that away from her, it would be like cutting off a limb. Magic is part of who she is."

_I believe that Willow has great potential to aid the world in its never-ending battle to fend off the darkness. It would not surprise me if the Powers That Be target her as an ally in their fight. Her heart is good. However, she could stand to learn more caution. I will restore her powers to her eventually, but I would like to warn her of the dangers inherent in drawing too much magic into herself at once. If she cannot bear to go a single day without magic coursing through her, it may be a sign that she has become too dependent on magic for day-to-day life._

"I dunno," Dawn said reluctantly. "People get kind of funny when you take something away from them. Like, when I was a kid…you know, the second time 'round, Buffy…mom, she decided to clean out my closet and donate a bunch of my old toys to charity. I hadn't even looked at those toys in years, but the moment she took them away, I wanted them more than anything."

_I am sorry that we have had to cause our friend pain, but it was necessary, and it will be short-lived. If we had not neutralized her, she would have followed us here, and I am not certain of her safety in this space between realms. But we are wasting time. Once everyone gets over the shock of what has happened, they are going to hunt down Spike. It would most definitely be in our best interest to reach him before they do._

"Yeah, I'd hate to see the fireworks if they get there before us. Xander sounded waaay to kill-happy for my liking. But, do you have any nifty ideas for how to get past Buffy and company? Normally when I pull this trick, I just wait around until the coast is clear and pop back in pretty much the same spot I left."

_The Key is capable of traveling within dimensions as well as between them,_ Aurora said. _Relax and open your mind, and I will share with you the information you need._

Dawn forced herself into a state of calm, and the picture of an empty glass waiting to be filled suddenly popped into her head. As she focused on making her mind an open vessel, she saw the image of sparkling water filling her cup. Within seconds, she felt her brain flooding with new information about her abilities, information that had lain dormant in her subconscious until now.

"This is so cool!" she exclaimed. "I feel like I'm in the Matrix!"

_Unfortunately, I will not be able to make weapons materialize out of thin air…but knowledge…knowledge I can give you._

Dawn held her hand out towards the door, palm up, and then curled her fingers upwards. "I know kung fu," she giggled.

_Believe me…what I've just taught you is so much better._

Dawn finally got serious, staring at the passage back to her world with new eyes. She allowed the door to become opaque again, doing her best to ignore Willow's distraught face on the other side. Dawn expected the portal to return to being a simple wooden door with no frills, but now it was so much more. As she examined it, the door began to change shape, bending and curving until it was actually a sphere, a miniature version of the entire Earth. She knew that with the slightest exertion of will, she could go anywhere on the face of the planet. But there was only one place she wanted to be right now.

Dawn stared at the globe in front of her and let Spike's blood call to her. She could be standing on the opposite side of the Earth from Spike and still be able to spin and point in his direction. Or in this case, not standing on the Earth at all.

As she focused on their connection, the image of the world in front of her began to change, zooming in closer and closer. First she was looking at all of North America, and then the West Coat of the US. Soon, the image of Sunnydale was rushing towards her, buildings and streets whizzing past until she was looking into a hotel room…the bathroom of a hotel room to be specific.

And the view was glorious.

She was greeted with the sight of Spike taking a shower as he waited for the last rays of the sun to finally disappear below the horizon. He was partially hidden by the distorted glass of the stall door, but even a blurred vision of a nude Spike was a vision to behold.

Dawn let out an involuntary gasp. The lust was all hers…even if he was the enemy, she couldn't deny that he was attractive…but there was also a swell of love in her heart…the violent, intense emotion of a young person in love for the first time. And the love was still not quite her own. Dawn had thought she was doing an OK job of adjusting, but staring at Spike and feeling her heart swell with love was just…strange. It was like trying on clothing she had borrowed from someone else…the feelings didn't quite fit. It would take some time until this love really felt comfortable and true.

With a deep breath, Dawn made an effort to embrace the feelings of love and affection that were making her pulse race, allowing them to sweep her away rather than fighting the tide of emotion. She stared at Spike and remembered night after night of teasing touches and toe-curling kisses that left her aching for more. She remembered the euphoric sensation of his fangs piercing her neck, and she felt the lower region of her body tingle in anticipation of an entirely different sort of penetration.

Dawn allowed herself a few more moments to admire Spike from a distance, taking advantage of the fact that he could not sense her when she was outside of Earth's dimension. She knew the moment she crossed the threshold into that room, he would be all over her, and she wanted to be suitably aroused. She couldn't let him sense any uncertainty in her, or her plans for him could collapse like a deck of cards.

So Dawn looked unabashedly, admiring the way the water ran over his muscles, making his pale skin glisten, and she imagined her hands following a similar path. She pictured what it would be like for him to step out of the shower with a predatory grace, his eyes blazing with hunger for her and her alone. She let these thoughts consume her, until her entire body was aching with desire.

When Dawn finally took a step forward, exiting the realm between dimensions and materializing in Spike's bathroom, she barely had time to feel the damp heat of the room wash over her skin before the shower door came flinging open and Spike launched himself at her. She had not expected him to react so quickly. Dawn didn't even have time to admire the unobstructed view before she found herself forcefully slammed into the wall with Spike's fingers curled around her throat.

Dawn's purse, with all of her lovely vampire-fighting accessories, clattered to the ground. She could see the animalistic urge to kill or be killed in Spike's eyes, and Dawn had to make an effort not to reach under her skirt for the stake strapped to her thigh. She forced her body to remain still, like a little rabbit frozen in fear, hoping the predator would move on by rather than attack and gobble her up. After several long seconds, Dawn felt Spike's body relax as he finally came to his senses recognized just who he had pressed up against the wall.

"That's quite the trick you've got there," Spike said with a predatory smile, allowing the bruising grip he had on her throat to morph into a sensual caress. "You'd best be careful with that popping in and out of dimensions rubbish. Or next time I might snap that pretty little neck of yours before I realize who you are…and there are _much_ better things I could be doing to your neck," Spike purred, planting a kiss against one of the bruises that was already forming on her throat.

Despite his bravado, Dawn could sense his uncertainty, as if he wasn't sure just yet _which _Dawn had barged unannounced into his bathroom. She forced herself to relax into his touch, letting years of pent up longing rise to the forefront of her mind. Using her connection to Spike, Dawn sent tendrils of love and desire flowing along their link, causing his body to stiffen in shock.

"It really worked," he said, his voice awestruck. "For a moment, I wasn't sure if you were a Slayer come to end my sorry existence now that I'd outlived my usefulness, or if maybe you were just a hormonal teenager itching to take a walk on the wild side. But I can feel it in my heart…my Dawn has come home to me."

And then his arms were around her, holding her tight in a bone-crushing hug. He let out a choked sob, his cocky demeanor washed away in a flood of emotion. "Bloody hell, I've missed you," he whispered fiercely.

Dawn let her lips graze his throat, planting butterfly kisses along his jaw until she reached his mouth. "I've missed you too," she replied, kissing him tenderly as tears of her own began to fall freely.

Spike took a moment to brush the tears away from her eyes, and then he was kissing her passionately, his fangs bruising her lips as he claimed her mouth. Dawn could feel the evidence of his desire pushing against her stomach, and she allowed her hand to slide down the wet skin of his chest, slipping lower and lower until her fingers cautiously grazed the hardened member between his legs.

"No more waiting," she murmured into his ear.

Spike backed away with a startled gasp, his eyes blazing with barely restrained hunger. For a moment, Dawn wondered if he would take her right there against the bathroom wall, but then she saw him visibly reign himself in as a mischievous smirk spread across his face.

"I see your little trip across the universe has made you impatient. But you know, you did just barge in here without so much as a by-your-leave. I haven't even had time to put in conditioner. Hair this fabulous takes work, you know."

Dawn giggled and turned as if to leave. "If you'd rather I come back another time…" she said.

Spike reached behind him to turn off the water in the shower, never letting his eyes leave Dawn's. "I think I can make an exception, just this once," he said with a grin.

Dawn mimicked Spike's motions, reaching behind her to open the bathroom door without ever taking her eyes off of him. She made a point to openly admire the view as she began to back away from him, allowing him to stalk her like prey as they slowly crept into the bedroom.

When she felt the backs of her legs hit the edge of the bed, she paused and let Spike close the distance between them. When he reached her, he stopped mere inches away from her body and sank to his knees. With a tenderness that belied the hunger in his eyes, he slid his hands down to her ankles, gently lifting each leg to remove her sandals, planting a soft kiss on the top of each foot as he did so.

Dawn trembled as Spike inched his hands up her legs. His fingers teased the skin of her calves and slowly slid past her knees to caress her thighs. When he encountered the thigh harness for her stake, he let out a soft chuckle.

"No toys for you tonight," he said as he removed the offending weaponry and tossed it into a corner. "I'm still a tad sore from the last time I let you play with one of those."

Dawn felt like she should have some sort of witty reply, but her brain was too overwhelmed by the sensation of Spike touching her for her to form any sort of coherent thought. His hands continued to roam over her legs, traveling up and up until his fingers were hooked over the waistband of her panties, and Dawn just stood there like the trembling virgin she was and reveled in the assault on her senses.

Spike gave a sharp tug to her panties, causing Dawn to gasp as the delicate bit of lace was abruptly torn from her body. "Do you want me to stop?" Spike murmured against her thigh as he casually tossed aside the remnants of her underwear.

"No…no more running away," Dawn replied as her body shivered at his touch.

"That's right, pet…no more running away," Spike said, gripping her hips possessively. He carefully lifted one of her legs over his shoulder and ducked his head under the skirt of her dress, trailing wet kisses up the length of her thigh.

When his tongue finally delved between her legs, Dawn let out a throaty moan of pleasure. Spike's hands were still warm from the heat of the shower, but his tongue was cold against her sensitive flesh. Dawn threw back her head and arched her back, bucking against his mouth. But given her precarious positioning, the motion caused her to lose her balance and fall backwards onto the bed.

Spike let out a deep, satisfied chuckle. "I thought you'd have better balance, what with being a Slayer and all," he teased, his tongue darting out to capture the lingering taste of her on his lips.

"Maybe I'll get better with practice," she replied, looking slightly flustered and more than a little rumpled. Dawn sat up and attempted to pull her dress back down into a more decent position.

"Oh no you don't, luv," Spike said, grabbing Dawn's hand. "I'm thinking you are decidedly overdressed for this occasion."

Spike pulled her back up to a standing position next to the bed. He leaned in close and whispered, "You're doing wonderful, pet," as he reached around to lower the zipper of her dress. He slid his hands up her spine to undo the clasp of her bra, and his hands continued their journey up her back until they reached her shoulders. With a gentle nudge, both the bra and the dress came tumbling off Dawn's body to pool at her feet.

Dawn instinctively crossed her arms to cover her chest, but Spike grabbed her hands and gently placed them at her sides. "You got your eyeful when you first popped into the bathroom…now it's my turn."

"Well, it _is_ a rather nice view," Dawn giggled.

"Glad you approve," Spike said with a grin, taking a step back and slowly spinning in a circle for her benefit. When he finished twirling, he crept back towards her, his eyes raking over body. The bedroom was only illuminated by the light leaking out of the bathroom, and in the shadowed room, her skin gleamed like moonlight.

Like a groom carrying his bride over the threshold, Spike scooped Dawn up in his arms and laid her gently in the center of the bed. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this," he said, crawling over her and kissing her hungrily.

Dawn surprised Spike by rolling him onto his back and straddling his waist. "I guarantee you, it's not nearly as long as I've been waiting," she replied, kissing him back with just as much force.

"Then I won't make the lady wait any longer," Spike said, grabbing Dawn's hips in a bruising grip. He slid her forward until she was positioned above him, the tip of his manhood just barely grazing her entrance. He held her steady with one hand and used his other to draw her wrist to his mouth. "I want to taste you when you come," he murmured against her flesh.

With a lascivious grin, Spike sank his fangs into the skin of her wrist, slowly suckling the tender flesh. As always, the brief flash of pain associated with the skin breaking was immediately washed away by the pleasure Spike could cause when he fed. Dawn threw back her head and groaned, pushing her wrist hard against his mouth. Her hips ached to thrust against him, but with preternatural speed, Spike's hands flew to her legs, the muscles of his arms bulging with the effort of keeping her from sinking onto him.

_Not yet_, she heard him whisper through their connection.

Dawn had her head thrown back, her eyes closed in ecstasy, and her arched back caused her pert breast to jut out beautifully. Unable to reach the tantalizing display, Spike sent a subtle suggestion to Dawn through their link, causing Dawn to unconsciously raise her free hand and begin caressing her own breasts. Her fingers trailed back and forth across each mound, alternating between feather-light touches and sharp pinches to each nipple.

Spike continued to feed from her wrist, each tiny sip causing Dawn to spiral closer and closer to her peak. Spike drew it out for as long as he could until both of them were trembling violently, all the while refusing to penetrate her. When he felt her teetering at the edge of her breaking point, Spike released Dawn's weight, allowing her to sink onto him in one sharp thrust as her orgasm crashed over her. Spike clamped her wrist firmly to his mouth, finally drinking deeply as her body thrashed against his.

Through their connection, Spike mentally shared in Dawn's release, waves of pleasure rolling through his mind, but when her spasms subsided, he was still hard inside her. Dawn's palms were splayed across his chest, and she was supporting herself with her shaky arms as her breaths came in ragged gasps. As her pleasure subsided, he could dimly sense a tendril of unease flitting through her mind, as well as the tight, stinging sensation of the unfamiliar intrusion between her legs.

Spike rolled so that Dawn was now cradled beneath him, his manhood still snuggly sheathed inside her. When he brushed her hair away from her face, he could see the glimmer of tears in her eyes.

"Hush, luv. It will only hurt for a moment," he said, gently kissing a stray tear from her cheek.

Dawn could feel that Spike's body still throbbed with unfulfilled desire, and even though her own body was already beginning to ache in pain from his violent intrusion, mentally, she encouraged him to continue, letting him know without words that she wanted to give him as much pleasure as he had given her.

Spike set himself a painfully gentle rhythm at first, slowly withdrawing from her and easing back in with the greatest of care. His eyes gazed intently into hers, the depth of emotion he was feeling causing his breath to catch in his throat. It was exquisite torture, but worth the effort, because slowly, Dawn's body began to relax and open wide to him.

It wasn't until Spike drew close to his release that his self-control finally broke. He began to set a more demanding pace, gradually increasing in tempo until he was finally thrusting into her with an animalistic need, a deep, inhuman growl emanating from the back of his throat.

Without their connection, Dawn would have been feeling more pain than pleasure at the frantic pace he was now setting, but because they were linked, Spike's desire was able to carry her into a world were pain and pleasure mingled in the perfect proportions. Dawn rode the storm of his desire, her nails digging into Spike's back and her hips rising to meet his. Every time he sheathed himself in her, she found herself making an involuntary grunt of pleasure, halfway between a moan and a scream. Dawn's conscious mind was drowning in Spike's desire, her thoughts focused solely on culminating their union.

But all the while, in the back of Dawn's mind, Aurora silently watched on, allowing her magic to build as she waited for Spike to pass the point of no return. Tears flowed freely from her eyes now, because despite every terrible sin he had ever committed, part of her loved Spike just as he was. There was a terrible, animalistic beauty to him, and she was terrified that she was about to destroy it. Because she knew, for good or for ill, what she was about to do would change him. But it was something that had to be done if she ever wanted to be able to give her heart to him without reservation. As the Key, she could not risk being corrupted by the monster within him.

And so she waited for that glorious peak, when his mind would be at its most vulnerable. When she felt the cold release of his seed inside of her, his climax sending a flood of pleasure through her mind, she clutched him to her, her body shuddering as she echoed back his words from earlier.

"It will only hurt for a moment, love," she cried, choking back a sob as she quickly rolled Spike onto his back and placed both of her hands over his heart. The spell took only a few seconds to complete, but the explosion of magic was so violent, it sent a shockwave through the room.

Spike only had time for a moment's confusion before his entire body spasmed in pain. His back arched until his entire torso was lifted off the bed, and he let out a guttural roar as golden light began to stream from his eyes and mouth.


	35. Chapter 35

**Author's Note: **Some warnings for this chapter. It contains an odd blend of fluff, sex and horror. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, you might just want to scroll down and only read the last few lines of the chapter.

* * *

He awoke to the pleasant sensation of a soft, warm body curled against his naked flesh. His mind felt hazy, but utterly content, and he absently ran his fingers through the dark hair of the woman pressed against him. It was strange for her to be there. All of the women he'd been intimate with recently had fled his room as soon as the deed was done and they had coin in their hand. But if she wished to linger, he certainly wasn't going to complain. This one seemed especially beautiful, an added bonus.

"Welcome back, love," she murmured sleepily, her head rising from his chest as she graced him with a smile. "You've been out cold for hours."

His eyebrows rose up in surprise at her warm reaction. Not a whore then.

"I know this will sound terribly strange given…er…circumstances," he said with a faint blush, his eyes darting down towards their state of undress, "but do I _know_ you, madam? I vaguely recall a woman of your description accosting me in an alleyway. God, but she was a vision. There was something so utterly hypnotic about her…as if she could see into my very soul and pluck out its secrets. She drew me in with beautiful words, words that whispered my innermost desires, but then something changed. Her face became fierce and bestial, and after that, all I can remember is pain. However, the longer I gaze upon you, the more firmly I believe that you and she are not the same person. But I…I cannot fathom how I could have gone from bleeding in an alleyway to lounging in a bed with you, much as it shames me to admit it. I actually can't recall much of anything after that bizarre attack. Trying to remember is like looking through a deep fog. All I see are shadows. Nothing is clear."

"You went through a bit of…trauma…recently," Dawn said nervously. "From what I understand, a little memory loss is normal, but it should all come back to you eventually."

"Well, I remember my name at least. I'm William," he said with a soft smile.

A frown flitted across Dawn's face. She hadn't realized the memory loss would be so severe. She'd only had a few vague descriptions from musty old Watcher journals to go on, after all. A jolt of panic raced through her chest. What if she'd permanently erased everything he'd experienced as a vampire…over a hundred years worth of memories, just gone?

"William? As in William the Bloody?" she asked tentatively.

William winced, a pained expression crossing his face. "I see you are familiar with my loathed nickname then. Is my poetry truly that terrible?" he asked.

"Poetry?" Dawn replied, suppressing a giggle as a small bit of mirth pierced through the panic in her heart. She'd forgotten the _real_ source of that nickname. "You haven't actually written me any poetry yet."

"I lured you in with my charm alone, did I then?" he asked, grinning at her with a crooked smile.

"Something like that," Dawn replied, crawling over him to straddle his waist. When her memories had been lost, Spike had still been able to reach out to her through touch. Her body had responded even when her mind could not. Through their link, she could sense his mind struggling to remember her. But even without his memories, she could feel the surge of affection and desire racing through him as he looked upon her. For once, his mind was free of the rage that always seemed to boil just beneath the surface.

She drank in the sight of his glowing smile, not knowing if she'd ever see him so carefree again. She leaned down to kiss him gently, mentally sending him a glimpse of their earlier love-making. She only sent him select pieces, images free of blood and fangs and eyes glowing with need. Instead, she focused on the passionate kisses, the tender moments, and the look of absolute adoration he'd had in his eyes through it all.

"I'm Dawn," she said as she continued to pepper his skin with soft kisses. "And I actually know you by a different name. You've always been Spike to me."

"How on earth did I acquire such a bizarre name?" he mused absently as his fingers explored the soft skin of her back.

Dawn slid her hand down his chest to grasp the hardness she felt stirring underneath her. William let out a surprised gasp, but he made no moves to stop her. With a sultry smile, she positioned herself over him before sinking down, sheathing him inside of her in one fluid motion. "You always told me it was because you had a talent for…impaling…things," she replied, her voice heavy with desire.

William let out a soft moan. "Who am I to argue with a lady?" he grinned.

With a laugh, he rolled with Dawn until he was positioned on top. "You are the most exquisite creature I've ever seen," he murmured into her ear. "I'm sure when my memory is fully restored, it will prove me right and I will compose entire books of odes in your honor."

Dawn cupped the side of his face, letting her fingers sink into his hair. "I don't need pages of poetry. I just want you to remember me…remember _us. _Without you, I'd be lost, in ways you can't even begin to imagine. I…I love you," she said softly, and for the first time since she'd regained her own memories, she meant it, down to the depths of her soul.

William let out a sigh of pleasure. "And I love you. Even without my memories, I can feel in my heart that this is true."

Dawn gently ran her nails down his back as she arched her hips against him. "How about you take a stab at earning your new nickname?" Dawn said with an impish grin. Even though her body was slightly sore from their earlier activities, she felt the compulsive need to experience all she could of Spike before this new-found innocence was lost forever.

"A wish such as that is easily granted," William replied.

He stared at Dawn with a wonder-struck look, as if he expected her to disappear at any moment, like a pleasant dream that vanishes upon waking. He couldn't fathom how he'd managed to earn the love of such a remarkable woman, but he certainly wasn't going to protest her affections. He'd been searching his entire life for the love he saw shining in her eyes, and he wanted more than anything to reclaim the memory of every moment he'd shared with her.

When he began to move within her, his motions were deliberately gentle. He planned to etch the memory of her into his very skin so that he could never forget such a treasure again. He drew out each thrust, stretching every moment to the limits of his endurance. Dawn attempted to speed his motions, her hands grasping at his hips, but he continued his languid pace, taking time to enjoy the little details. The slide of her smooth skin against his…the way her breath caught in her throat every time he sank fully into her…they way her eyes burned with desire as they gazed upon him. William drank in all of this, her love like cool water to his thirsty spirit.

And through it all, sensual images from earlier in the night flitted through his head. Like motes in the sun, the memories danced away from his grasp when he tried to claim them as his own, but they never disappeared completely. He contented himself to bask in their warmth while doing his best to burn the new memories he was creating firmly into his mind. He drank in every detail of Dawn as he continued to worship her with his body. The flat planes of her stomach, the swell of her breasts, the curve of her smile…they were all a delight to him, a gift that he wasn't quite certain he deserved.

He dragged out their love-making for as long as he could, until they were both sweaty and panting with need. However, even though he felt filled with an unfamiliar strength, he could not force his body to endure indefinitely. The pleasure building within him was a siren call too powerful to resist forever. Gradually, his careful motions increased in speed, hastened even more by Dawn's encouraging whimpers and moans as she writhed beneath him. His thrusts became less deliberate and more need-driven as his release drew near.

But as he neared the peak of pleasure, new memories began surfacing in his mind, bizarre images that somehow managed to mesh seamlessly with the tender memories that had already been awakened. They were in a cemetery, seated in the grass between headstones. He saw Dawn cradled in his arms, her lips stained with blood, glistening ruby red. Her eyes flashed with an inner green light, and her pale skin glowed like moonlight, filled with power.

William buried his face against Dawn's shoulder, trying to reconcile the goddess in his memories with the image of the woman beneath him. He placed frantic kisses against the skin of her neck, trying to prove to himself that she was nothing but flesh and blood…just a girl…not a terrifying creature of ancient power. After the strange woman in the alley, he'd had more than his fill of otherworldly beauty. But then an even more disturbing vision flared to life in his mind.

He saw himself with his teeth buried in her throat, eagerly glutting himself on her blood. William would swear that his canines actually grew longer in response to this memory, their tips suddenly needle-sharp against the inside of his lips. Her pulse seemed to leap out at him, visibly throbbing against her skin, and he had the animalistic urge to bite down and release her lifeblood into his eager mouth. Even more horrifying, Dawn seemed to somehow recognize this terrible desire within him, and she urged him forward, murmuring "yes, oh yes," as her hands grasped his head and guided his lips to her throat.

William removed Dawn's hands from his head, pinning them firmly into the mattress as he forced his lips away from her tempting neck. His eyes were wide with terror, and his breaths came in labored gasps. Suddenly, his muscles convulsed, causing him to grasp Dawn's wrists in a bruising grip as a white-hot bolt of pain lanced through his head. When he heard Dawn's startled cry of pain, he released her wrists and pushed himself to his knees. Instinctively, his hands flew to cover his eyes in a vain attempt to shut out the nightmares suddenly filling his mind.

"Spike, what's wrong?" Dawn asked, the heat of her desire rapidly cooling as a tendril of ice-cold fear wormed its way into her heart.

William fearfully let his hands drop to his side. But as looked down at her, his eyes filled with a golden fire, and it was not Dawn that he saw. All of the tender memories that had been soothingly washing over his mind were gone, swept away in a flood of grotesque images that perverted the beauty splayed out beneath him.

He saw Dawn with her head tilted at an unnatural angle, her neck broken. He saw her with her throat savagely ripped open, her naked flesh covered in blood and a look of surprised horror frozen on her face. He saw her with her face covered in cuts, her beautiful chestnut hair crudely hacked off. He saw her lips blue with asphyxiation, the bruises circling her throat bearing the imprint of his hands. He saw her split open, gullet to garters, as he feasted on her heart's blood. Over and over again, visions of horror cycled before his eyes, causing him to let out a wail of despair.

Through their connection, Dawn was able to see what Spike was experiencing. When they'd first reestablished their blood bond the day before, she'd caught glimpses of the atrocities he'd committed as he pined for her, but now she was seeing them again in full Technicolor. Even though the knowledge of what he'd done caused bile to rise in the back of her throat, she cautiously pulled him back down into her embrace, trying to soothe away the pain.

"Hush, love, hush. It wasn't your fault," Dawn murmured.

"How can this be?" he asked, his voice full of anguish. "I remember murdering you…over and over again. And I enjoyed it. I can recall the wicked glee in my heart at each depravity. How can I have killed you dozens of times over and still have you here in my arms?"

"I won't lie to you…you did kill those girls. But they weren't me. You picked them because they looked like me…" Dawn replied cautiously.

"You…you knew this, and yet you still claim to love me? Perhaps I am not the only monster in the room," he said angrily, turning his face away from her in shame.

Dawn grabbed his face and forced him to look her in the eye. "You are _not_ a monster," she said firmly. "The woman you remember attacking you in the alley…her name is Drusilla, and she _infected_ you with a demon…turned you into a vampire. You may have a monster inside of you, but _you_ are not the demon. I've seen you do wonderful things. You have such a potential for good in you."

"Vampires…demons? Fanciful tales to explain away the harsh reality, my pet," William replied. "Something is broken in my mind. I'm a psychopath and a murderer, and you'd do well to run away as far and as fast as you can," he said bitterly.

William tried to pull away from Dawn, but she desperately clutched him to her. "I swear to you, there is good inside of you," she said fiercely.

He grabbed her wrists, pinning her to the bed once more. When his memories began to resurface, his desire had fled, causing him to go limp, but now he felt himself growing rock hard once again. With a growl of anger, he rammed himself inside of her.

"You think I'm a good man?" he laughed harshly. "I enjoyed what I did to those girls! I took just as much pleasure from making them moan with desire as I did when they screamed in pain. There is nothing but sickness in me, and it will destroy us both."

To demonstrate his point, he began thrusting forcefully into Dawn, not caring whether he hurt her or not. It was the exact opposite of the gentleness he'd show earlier. He held her down and slammed into her over and over again, as if he wanted to prove to her that he really was a monster. Involuntary cries of pain escaped her throat, and tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes. But despite his roughness, Dawn did not resist. She freely allowed him to vent his anger onto her body without protest. In a way, the pain she was enduring was her own form of penance. After all, she was the one who had forced this mental agony on Spike without ever pausing to ask for consent.

But she was not entirely passive against his assault. Rather than fight back physically…a fight she knew she could not win…she fought back with her mind, pouring memories of them together through their mental link as he ravaged her. Spike had immersed himself in the memory of his sins, drowning out anything else. But like a gentle wave, Dawn buffeted his mind with all of the wonderful things she remembered about him, trying to break him free from his self-imposed mental prison.

His physical release is what finally allowed her the crack she needed to slip into his mind. In that moment of weakness, as his seed flooded her body, she flooded his thoughts, forcing him to remember the good alongside the bad. Eventually, the dam broke, and she felt over a hundred years worth of suppressed memories surge back into his conscious mind.

For ages, he clung to her, sobbing into her shoulder as he wept for all the depravities he'd committed over the years. She rubbed his back soothingly, mentally telling him over and over again that she loved him despite it all.

Eventually, he rolled off of her, gasping for breath. "Cor, luv. What have you done to me?" Spike asked, his voice hoarse with pain and remorse.

"The only thing I could do," Dawn replied softly.

"I've given you back your soul."


	36. Chapter 36

**Author's Note: **For those of you who thought I'd abandoned this story, I do apologize. Life just seems to get busier and busier, and finding time to sit down and write is very difficult. However, I promise, no matter how long it takes, I _will_ finish this story. I only plan on writing a couple more chapters...but how long that will take...who knows? I hope you enjoy the chapter, even if it did take months and months to arrive.

* * *

Aurora could sense their presence long before they reached the door of the hotel room. The "bloody Slayer and her band of Scoobies" as Spike would often say (or at least, the Spike she remembered from long ago). She could feel the pulsing energy signatures of those who possessed even a shred of magical talent. And she could feel the void of energy within Willow, a locked door seething with an aura of malevolent anger.

It would have been easy to run. With a thought, she could have transported her and Spike halfway across the world. But she knew that if she wished to remain in this dimension, she would have to face her estranged family eventually. Running would only prolong the inevitable. First, they would pursue her out of love…because there was no doubt that they all loved Dawn very much. But if she eluded them long enough, they would pursue her out of fear. Because she was also certain that as much as they loved Dawn, they feared "Aurora". They would not let her roam free until they had seen for themselves that she was one of the "good guys".

Aurora gleaned from Dawn's mind that hotels these days no longer used keys for their doors. Instead, each door was keyed to the guest's thumbprint. Aurora wasn't quite certain how her family planned on bypassing that particular security measure, short of knocking the door off its hinges. While Dawn was preoccupied with soothing Spike, Aurora sent a whisper of energy towards the door, opening it just a crack. If she wasn't going to run, there was no sense in making it difficult for them to get in.

* * *

Willow paced back and forth in Giles' living room, her eyes blazing with anger. At first, she had been in a near catatonic state of shock over losing her magic. She had been like a zombie when they left the hospital, her body barely shuffling through the motions needed to get her to the car. It had taken all of them several hours of soothing and cajoling to convince her that the world wasn't about to end just because she couldn't do magic. But now that she had snapped out of her vegetative state, rage poured through her.

She rattled off spell after spell, calling on deities dark and light, trying to convince herself if she wanted it badly enough, the magic would return. Everyone glanced at each other nervously, wondering if a babbling, psychotic Willow was any better than a catatonic Willow. But when she couldn't even do a spell to float a pencil, she finally collapsed onto the couch in defeat.

"It's gone, it's really gone," Willow said morosely, staring at her hands in disbelief. "I can't believe that bitch stole my magic."

"Hey, that's our daughter you're talking about!" Buffy exclaimed.

"You know very well that I love _our_ Dawn dearly, but whatever is inside of her is cold. She turned off my magic as casually as someone turns off a faucet. Pardon me if I'm not okay with that. Or maybe you'd like my girlfriend here to cut off one of your limbs so you can get a sense of what I'm going through right now. You weren't using that arm, were you?" Willow asked snidely.

"Hey, leave me out of this!" Faith said, taking a step back and raising her hands defensively.

"What is inside of her is also Dawn…also our daughter. They are one being," Giles said softly.

"Well, then…my original statement stands. The 'new and improved' Dawn is a bit of a bitch," Willow said coldly.

"I'm sure we can give her the appropriate etiquette lessons once we find her," Giles replied dryly. "But that first requires us to stop squabbling and actually track her down."

"Well then maybe _you _should try doing the locator spell, because my attempts obviously haven't been working," Willow snapped.

"I dunno…call me crazy here," Xander said nervously, "but if Dawn can really just snap her fingers and take away a person's mojo, maybe using magic to find her isn't the best idea."

"Our boy's got a point," Faith said with a smile. "I think what we need is some good, old fashioned detective work. Now we all know that Dawn is hot to trot for Spike, so if we find the vampire, we find our girl."

"Spike has not lived in Sunnydale for quite some time. He could have chosen anywhere to hide away. There are any number of abandoned warehouses in this town," Giles said with a sigh.

"He might have holed up in a seedy motel too," Xander said.

Buffy looked back and forth between both men as if they had rocks in their head. "Don't either of you have a romantic bone in your body?"

"Care to explain that decidedly female leap of logic?" Xander asked.

"Spike may be a menace to society, but he's not stupid. The woman he is madly, obsessively in love with has just come back into his life after seventeen years. He's not going to drag her to some abandoned warehouse or fleabag motel for a quick roll in the hay. If he wants to properly romance her, he'll have reserved a room in the swankiest hotel in town."

"There's an upscale inn out by the lake just outside of town," Willow said, trying to embrace the idea of finding Dawn without using magic. "It's not exactly the Hilton, but it's classy and romantic."

"Now you're gettin' into the spirit," Faith said with an encouraging smile. "Why don't you go look up the address?"

"Sure, not a problem," Willow replied. Instinctively, her hands went to her temples as she tried to connect to the internet with her mind.

"No dice," Faith said, idly tossing a telephone book into her lap. "You're gonna have to do without the WiFi just like the rest of us poor schmucks."

Willow gave Faith a sheepish look and began leafing through the telephone book. "I'll write down the address for a few places in case he isn't at that first one."

"Good thinking," Buffy said with an encouraging smile.

"Not to put a damper on all this forward progress," Xander said, "but how are we going to know if he's there or not? We can't go asking the concierge if he's seen any vampires lately."

"That's where the G-man will come in," Faith said with a grin. "I figure Giles can go in all prim and proper and say he's looking for his estranged son. Once he's in, he can come around the back and let us in."

"Well aren't you a regular Nancy Drew," Xander said with a grin.

"Blame late night television," Faith replied. "I've watched way too many reruns of Law and Order."

"Okay, I've got the address we need," Willow interjected. "Let's get this show on the road…the sooner this is over with, the better."

"You heard the woman," Xander said. "Let's gear up and head out…except for you, little lady," Xander added, placing a hand on Buffy's shoulder. "You retired for a reason after all," he said, pointedly looking at her protruding stomach.

"You listen here, Xander Harris," Buffy said with a glower. "Just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean I'm useless. This isn't a mission to go take out a nest of vamps. We're going to look for my daughter…"

"And her criminally insane vampire boyfriend," Xander added.

"If there is fighting to be done, I will gladly stand back and let you get beaten black and blue, but if we need to reason with her, she might listen to me. I'm her mother…and more importantly, I know what it's like to love a vampire. Maybe I can talk some sense into her."

"And you're ok with this?" Xander asked, looking at Giles.

"Do you honestly think any of us could stop her when her mind is set on something? I can't believe you're dating two women, and you still haven't learned when to keep your mouth shut," Giles commented with a wry smile. "It's a wonder you've survived this long."

"He may be an idiot, but he's our idiot," Faith said with a smirk. "And he has some non-verbal talents that totally make up for the babbling," she added, trailing a finger down his chest.

"TMI…definitely TMI," Buffy exclaimed.

"Indeed," Giles replied. "If you two are finished flirting, perhaps we can begin searching for Dawn. I wish to make sure my daughter is safe and sound."

"Emphasis on the sound," Willow added under her breath.

"Pardon?" Giles said.

"I know we are all emotionally attached to Dawn, but we really should face that fact that she's not the same person anymore. The mind of a god-like being has been dumped into the skull of a 17-year-old girl. If she snaps under the pressure, I think we need to mentally prepare ourselves for the idea that we might have to take her down."

"Whoa there, girlfriend!" Faith exclaimed. "Let's not go getting all trigger happy just yet. Anyway…you said yourself that she's like a god now. How do you take down a god?"

"You weren't around for Glory…the she-devil who started this crazy mess with the Key to begin with. But I'm sure everyone else here remembers her pretty clearly. We all learned that even gods can be downright frail when they are housed in a mortal body," Willow said ominously.

"And I'll tell you now what I told you back then," Buffy said, her voice full of menace. "If anyone tries to hurt Dawn, I will kill them myself."

"Ladies…ladies!" Xander exclaimed, stepping in between Buffy and Willow and holding his hands up in a peace making gesture. "I think we all just need to calm down a bit."

Willow frowned for a moment, her eyes taking on a glazed and distracted look. Then she shook her head to clear her thoughts and smiled sheepishly. "You're right, of course. Sorry for being all doom and gloom. I shouldn't be focusing on the worst case scenario until we see what exactly we are dealing with. Sorry guys."

Everyone laughed nervously, but the tension didn't quite break…it just eased up a bit. Whispered thoughts of fear and dread were still bouncing around the back of everyone's mind.

"Well, if we're all done quibbling, I suggest we head out," Giles said tersely.

Silently, everybody filed outside, an aura of unease still following in their wake.

* * *

Luckily for the group, the first hotel on their list was the one that Spike had taken up residence in. It was secluded on the outskirts of town and probably about as far away from the Giles' residence as you could get and still be in what was considered Sunnydale. So it really had been the logical choice. It was laughably easy to get the bellboy to disclose the location of Spike's room. The more-than-generous "tip" that Giles gave him definitely helped loosen his tongue.

When the group finally arrived at Spike's room, they barged in on a scene of bizarre intimacy. Dawn was seated cross-legged in the center of the room's large bed, Spike cradled in her lap. One hand was soothingly running through Spike's hair while the other dangled near his mouth. He suckled on her fingers like an infant with a bottle, drawing tiny drops of her blood into his mouth from the pinprick his fangs had left on her fingertips. He fed more for comfort than out of any need for nourishment. Both of them were unabashedly naked.

At the sound of their entrance, Spike leapt in front of Dawn, shielding her with his body as he let out an animalistic snarl at the intruders. Dawn yelped and quickly pulled a sheet up over her chest.

_Why is the door unlocked?_ Dawn screamed internally, completely startled by the sudden appearance of her entire family.

_I knew they were coming, and I wished to avoid a scene in the hallway. I feared they would attempt to break down the door to get to us,_ Aurora replied logically.

_Warning…a warning would have been nice. My whole family just barged in on the most intimate experience of my life. And I'm NAKED! I can't deal with this. YOU deal with them,_ Dawn shouted as she pushed Aurora's consciousness to the foreground.

"Oh, God…my eyes," Xander whimpered as everyone stared in shock.

Quickly, Aurora rose from the bed, wrapping a sheet around her as she stood. "It's alright", she said with an air of calm, placing her hand on Spike's shoulder. "We were expecting them."

"You must mean the 'royal we'," Spike growled. "Because I wasn't bloody well expecting any part of the last couple of days."

"Nice work, Dawn" Faith said with a wink. "You finally got yourself laid. And he's quite the hottie."

"_He's_ standing right here, and he can hear you," Spike grumbled as he quickly shrugged on a pair of pants.

"Oh, God…my daughter just had sex with a vampire," Giles murmured, looking a bit queasy.

"We can talk about that later," Buffy said, her voice strained. She was struggling to stay focused and not pass judgment. After all, she'd done pretty much the same thing at Dawn's age. "First things first…"

"First things first," Willow interrupted, "you are going to fix whatever the hell it is you did to me. You have _no right_ to play god with my life."

"Slow down, Wills," Xander said in a placating tone. "At least let the girl get dressed."

Willow shot Xander a glare before turning her attention back to Dawn.

"I was trying to protect you," Aurora said, trying to keep her voice calm and soothing. "I did not want you to harm yourself trying to follow me."

"I'm a big girl…I can make my own decisions, thank you very much," Willow replied.

"Funny how you won't extend me the same courtesy," Aurora said, arching her eyebrow.

"OK, so there is plenty of blame to go around," Willow said. "But can you please fix whatever it is you did to me? Then I swear I'll let bygones be bygones."

Aurora stepped closer to Willow and placed a hand on her cheek. "There is a powerful aura of anger surrounding you. If I restore your magic now, there will be negative repercussions."

"I can handle it," Willow said through gritted teeth, her eyes almost frantic with a need that was not quite her own.

"Maybe you should listen to her, Willow," Buffy said nervously. "Dawn is sort of the new expert on things like this."

Only Aurora could see the split second of pure rage that flitted across Willow's face, twisting it into something horrible. When Willow turned to speak to Buffy, she had a fake, placating smile plastered onto her face.

"How many years have we fought side by side?" Willow asked. "You know me…what I'm capable of. So trust me…everything will be ok."

"Why are you so insistent that we deal with this right now?" Faith asked. "Don't you think we have more pressing matters to attend to…like say the fact that we're in a room with one of the world's deadliest vamps?"

"All the more reason I should be armed," Willow replied. "It only took a second for her to strip away my power before. It should take no time at all to restore it. Like flipping on a light switch."

"Oh, bugger all," Spike interjected. "Just give the girl what she wants. I want to get this little intervention over with as soon as possible. I'm not exactly in the mood for company right at this moment. I'm having a bit of a rough night, in case you forgot."

"As you wish," Aurora replied. As she spoke, her eyes never left Willow. "I would suggest everyone take a few steps back."

Aurora had planned to reawaken Willow's magic gradually, letting it fill her in a slow trickle rather than abruptly 'flipping a switch' as Willow had put it. But the moment she cracked open the door to Willow's magic, it was like opening a floodgate. The dark energy that had been waiting impatiently on the other side, whispering angry thoughts into Willow's head, now poured inside of her. Willow's eyes filled with black, and then they took on an orange glow, as if lit by an inner fire.

Aurora waited, intently monitoring the level of energy pouring into Willow. She had expected something like this, and she wanted to make sure it all poured through to this dimension before she attempted to destroy it. She was so focused on anticipating some sort of magical attack, that she was caught totally by surprise when Willow stepped forward and embraced her.

"Thank you!" she said, and to everyone watching it seemed as if Willow were simply hugging Dawn as a display of gratitude. Even Aurora didn't realize what was happening until it was too late.

The bang was deafening in the confines of the room. The pain in her stomach seemed almost secondary to the ringing in her ears. It wasn't until she collapsed to the floor that the shock began to wear off and she noticed the fiery agony in her midsection.

"Foolish, arrogant godling," Willow hissed, her voice suddenly deep and raspy. "You may be Keeper of the Gates, but you forget that your flesh is mortal."

An evil cackle escaped Willow's mouth as she dropped her smoking gun to the floor.


	37. Chapter 37

**Authors Note:** I know some of you have been waiting a very long time for the last chapters of this story. Sadly, writing is something that I have very little time for these days. I actually took a day off work to finish this story because I hated the idea of leaving it unfinished. I'm sorry it took me so long, and I hope the ending does not disappoint.

* * *

Buffy let out an inhuman wail as Dawn collapsed to the floor of the hotel room, her blood slowly seeping into the white sheet she had wrapped around herself just moments ago. Without even pausing to think of the danger, Buffy launched herself at Willow, the intent to kill clearly written across her face.

A burst of energy emanated from where Willow was standing, throwing Buffy back before she even made it two steps. The pressure of the shock wave flattened everyone to the ground in a parody of obeisance. There was a stifling aura around Willow, as if something much, much larger had suddenly entered the room.

"Foolish mortals," a deep voice hissed through Willow's mouth. "Do you really think you can defy me now that I have crossed over completely? You thought this child was powerful? For _years_ I have fed her just the smallest tastes of my essence, patiently biding my time, preparing the way. But that is nothing compared to the fullness of my glory!"

Xander opened his mouth, intent on delivering some sort of witty one-liner. Making fun of egomaniacal, power-hungry monsters was practically part of his job description. But he found himself unable to move his lips. He couldn't move much of anything, in fact. All he could do was lay prone as waves of malevolent energy flowed over him.

An eerie, high-pitched giggling filled the room. "So, this is what I sound like when I've gone insane," Xander mused idly to himself.

But the sound was not coming from Xander…it was coming from Dawn. Her laughter rang louder and louder, even as her blood continued to seep onto the floor.

"Silence!" Willow screeched. With inhuman strength, Willow picked Dawn up by the hair until they were eye-level and began shaking her violently.

"They never learn," Dawn said with a raspy chuckle.

"Learn what?" Willow growled, her eyes glowing orange with rage.

Without warning, Dawn removed her blood covered hand from the wound on her stomach and punched it _through_ Willow's chest. "The blood is the key to the power," Dawn whispered into Willow's ear.

When Dawn withdrew her arm, it was translucent and glowing with a bright green light. Willow collapsed to the ground at Dawn's feet. Physically, Willow had no wounds, but where Dawn had touched her, there was a rent in her soul, and a thick, black mist began to pour violently out of her chest. As the mist came into contact with Dawn, it turned from black and smoky to a shimmering green.

Soon, the whole room was filled with a nimbus of green light, as if a thousand tiny fireflies danced in the air. When the last of the black smoke had finished pouring from Willow's chest, Dawn closed her eyes and focused on all the latent energy in the room. With a burst of blinding light, the magic was dispelled, and a fine gray powder slowly descended over the entire room.

At first, there was a collective sigh of relief at the absence of the demon's presence. But a hush still hung over the room as everyone looked toward the prone form of Willow lying motionless in the center of the floor. Her skin was deathly pale, and she was not breathing.

Xander was the first to approach her, his love blinding him to any potential danger still present. He rushed to her side and began gently shaking her. "Wills…you still with us? Please…oh God please…still be with us."

A tense moment passed, and Willow suddenly gasped and sat bolt upright. After a violent coughing fit, she slumped into Xander's arms. Carefully, he sat down and cradled her in his lap. "Ow….remind me never to do _that_ again," she said with a weak smile.

Xander made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob as he tenderly brushed her hair from her face. "Never do anything like that ever again," he said with a relieved laugh.

Buffy was the next to rise from the ground. With a grimace, she began hastily brushing herself off. "Ugh…and here I thought retiring meant that I'd never have to wash vampire dust out of my hair again."

"Technically it's demon dust," Faith said with a smirk, as she too picked herself up off the ground.

"I guess this means I won't be getting the security deposit back on the hotel room," Spike grumbled. When he was sure he wasn't about to do something unmanly like fall over in a wave if dizziness, he rushed over to Dawn and pulled her close. "Don't ever do that again, luv…ya hear? For a moment, I thought I'd lost you," he murmured into her hair.

Dawn winced at the fierceness of his embrace. "Hold that thought for just a minute," she said. Clutching her stomach, she stepped back from Spike, and simply _disappeared_ in a faint glimmer of light.

True to her word, she came back just a moment later. When she returned, all traces of blood were gone from both the floor and the sheet she had wrapped around herself. The only evidence of any violence was the small hole in the sheet over her stomach.

"Nice trick," Faith said with an appreciative smile. "I don't suppose you'd teach me that, would ya?"

"Perhaps…in time," Dawn said with a weary smile as she nuzzled back in to Spike's embrace.

"So…this means we're not all going to die. Well, at least not tonight…right?" Xander asked with a nervous chuckle.

"That remains to be seen," Giles replied. His voice was icy cold, and he was staring at Dawn as if she were the enemy rather than his daughter. He alone had not joined in the festive banter that had arisen once Dawn dispelled the demon possessing Willow.

"Sweetie?" Buffy said nervously. The anger coming off of him was so intense that she instinctively took a step back and placed a protective hand over her stomach.

"Is this how it will always be?" Giles asked angrily. "You playing god with our lives? Do we mean _anything_ to you? Or are we just pawns on your chessboard?"

Dawn pulled herself from Spike's embrace and turned to face her father. "You dare to question me?" she asked, her eyes blazing.

"As much as it pains me to admit it, I'm going to have to side with the Watcher on this one," Spike interjected. "What you did to Red was a bit…abrupt…to put it mildly. Not to mention you givin' me back my soul without so much as a 'by your leave'. Not one hint of a warning. You could drive a fella mad pullin' tricks like that. Didn't it ever occur to you to simply _ask_?"

"Wait…Spike has his soul back? You mean, we don't get to stake him?" Xander asked dejectedly.

"No, you do NOT get to stake him," Dawn said fiercely.

"Enough of that," Giles scolded, his voice stern and brooking no argument. "I daresay I never thought I'd utter these words, but what Spike said only further illustrates my point. From the moment your memories have been restored, you have done nothing but cater to your own whims. If you wished to sling your power around in such a ham-fisted way, why did you even bother returning to this plane of existence?"

"I did what I deemed best to neutralize the threats at hand." Dawn's eyes were now steadily glowing green, and her voice had taken on that multi-tonal quality that indicated that Aurora was speaking as well.

"And what gives you the right to decide what is best?" Giles asked quietly.

"In this culture, people are fond of saying that 'wisdom comes with experience'. Who has more experience than I?" Aurora replied.

"Yeah…the experience of a godling merged with the psyche of a teenager. That's _bound_ to end well," Faith muttered under her breath.

"You believe the immaturity of the host body is affecting our judgment?" Aurora asked, her tone curious and pensive.

"The fact that you are referring to Dawn as 'the host body' says loads about your own emotional maturity," Buffy interjected. "If you want to muck about with us mere mortals, you're going to have to start thinking of yourself as a person…not just a heaping collection of memories."

"I admit…I do not understand your emotional distress. No one was harmed," Aurora replied, her voice cool and logical.

Giles walked up to her and placed both his hands on her shoulders. "Did it ever occur to you that witnessing you get shot was _terrifying_…not just to your mother and I…but to everyone here who loves you? Does that sort of pain mean nothing to you?" At the end, his voice cracked, and he pulled Dawn to him in a tight hug.

Dawn tensed for a moment before her shoulders slumped. Tentatively, she raised her arms to return her father's embrace. "I..I'm sorry Daddy," Dawn whispered, all traces of Aurora's personality gone from her voice for the moment. "You're right…I wasn't thinking about that at all."

"You may have acquired a new…knowledge set…but you are still our daughter, and we are still a team," Giles said quietly as he released Dawn and wiped away a stray tear from her cheek.

"So…where do we go from here?" Willow asked nervously.

"Well…I'd say we could use a bit of a breather," Buffy replied. "Changes definitely need to be made. We all could stand to do a little less rushing headfirst into danger. But for tonight, we go home. We rest."

"And Dawnie…don't forget…tomorrow is a school day," Buffy added. The ridiculousness of the statement cut through the tension in the room like a knife.

"WHAT?" Dawn exclaimed, a response that was echoed by nearly everyone else in the room. "After everything I've been through, you can't possibly expect me be worried about something as silly as high school."

"I most certainly can, young lady," Buffy replied, her voice filled with parental authority. "You are obviously having trouble adjusting to the new memories in your head. I think a daily dose of normalcy is _exactly_ what you need to help you get used to the fact that you are living in _this_ world now."

"I am a relic of untold power housed inside a human body…I am one of the few beings on this earth guarding against the forces of darkness trying to invade this realm…and you want me to worry about physics and math exams" Dawn replied, her voice still incredulous.

"Sweetie, no one ever said that growing up on the Hellmouth was easy. Willow, Xander, and I were all fighting the good fight in high school, and we all managed to get our diplomas. Heck…Xander doesn't even have any super powers to fall back on."

"Hey…I resemble that remark," Xander said, looking slightly chagrined.

"But in all seriousness," Buffy continued. "How do you expect to protect the world if you don't understand what it is you are protecting?"

"It still seems like wasted time," Dawn muttered.

"Step One in learning to be human," Faith interjected. "Sometimes you have to do things you don't like to make the people you love happy. And hey…compared to dimension hopping through demon worlds, what's a few more months of high school?"

"Obviously, you were never unpopular," muttered Willow under her breath.

"And how exactly would this work?" Dawn asked. Instinctively, she inched closer to Spike and took his hand in hers.

"Well, you'd still live at home with your father and I, of course," Buffy said. "Monday through Friday, you'd go to school like any normal girl until you finish out your senior year. Most evenings, you'll either train or go on patrol."

"And what about the other evenings?" Dawn asked.

"Well, assuming you get all your homework done, I figured you'd want that time to spend with your boyfriend," Buffy replied with a small smile.

Even as Giles was opening his mouth to object, Dawn's eyes flashed green once more. "We accept your terms" she replied in Aurora's eerie, multi-tonal voice. Her grip on Spike's hand tightened possessively.

"Have we forgotten that her 'boyfriend' is a _vampire_?" Giles asked tersely.

"Have we forgotten that her _boyfriend_ is standing right here?" Spike growled as he pulled Dawn in close and wrapped his arms around her waist.

Buffy gently laid her hand on Giles arm. "Love, we couldn't stop her if we wanted to. Trust me…I'm speaking from experience here. It will be better this way."

"I crave a boon," Dawn interjected. Everyone looked at her quizzically, and her brows furrowed as she realized she was slipping into the speech patterns of her other self. Already, little pieces of her were starting to merge with Aurora. "I mean…I want a favor," she said, shaking her head as corrected herself.

"Tomorrow is a…Friday" Dawn said slowly. For a moment, the name of the day seemed foreign to her, like an obscure piece of information in a dusty tome about a long forgotten culture. It took all of her focus to force her mind back to the present time. "I'd like to take a 'sick day'. I think I need a few days to adjust before I plunge back into a life I can barely remember."

"Totally reasonable," Buffy replied. "Why don't we go home and just chill…maybe watch some TV? There's nothing like TV to help indoctrinate you into modern culture," she said with a laugh.

"On Monday, I will return home, and be your daughter. I will return to school and be a student of trivial subjects. On Monday, I will resume my duties as Slayer. But these next three days I claim for myself, a well earned rest for all I have been through."

"And just where will you be for those three days," Giles asked.

"I will be here, with Spike," Dawn replied with a small smile. "For the next three days, I will simply be a girl in love."

Spike gave Dawn a playful nip on the neck. "I like the sound of that," he murmured.

"And _that_, my friends, is our cue to leave," said Faith.

"But…but…" stuttered Giles.

"No buts, G-man," said Faith. "This is going to happen whether you like it or not. So I'm doing you a favor and getting you out the door before you say something you regret." Without preamble, she opened the door to the hotel room and gave Buffy and Giles a not so gentle push out the door.

"I, for one, desperately want to go home and take a shower," Faith continued. "I have demon ash all over me. If you two are quick, I might even let you join me" she said with a wink directed at Willow and Xander.

Willow scrambled to her feet, and Xander soon followed. Xander quickly joined Faith in the hallway, but Willow hesitated in the doorway.

"Um…sorry about shooting you," Willow said sheepishly.

"Sorry about turning off your magic," Dawn replied, just as abashed.

Willow gave the couple a relieved smile before closing the door behind her.

And suddenly, it was just Dawn and Spike alone in the room once more. The silence seemed strange after all the chatter. For a minute, Dawn contented herself with simply leaning against Spike, her back against his chest, as she took solace in the strength of his presence. He idly ran his fingers over the spot on her stomach where she had been shot. His relief at her safety washed over her like a balm, assuring her that he still loved her, despite her faults.

But there were still issues to be addressed.

Slowly, she turned around to face Spike. "You said something earlier," Dawn began cautiously. "When talking about your soul…you said I should have simply _asked_ if I could return it. Are you saying you …would have consented?"

Spike leaned down and pressed his forehead to Dawn's. "Don't you know by now…I would do anything for you, luv. I would have welcomed the soul with open arms if it was what you needed. You didn't need to shove it down my throat. I think we're going to have to work on those trust issues of yours."

Dawn leaned forward and gave Spike a tender kiss. It was strange to kiss him of her own volition, without Aurora's memories urging her forward. She reveled in the moment, letting the warmth of his feelings flow into her through their blood tie. Then she stepped back and allowed the sheet that was wrapped around her to tumble to the floor.

"We have three days," she said with a small smile. "I suggest we get started."


	38. Epilogue

Eos and Astraeus stood side by side atop a cliff overlooking the ocean. In ages past, the water before them had been dry land. Miles out to sea, buried beneath the ocean, was the place that had been their first home. Back when they were simply Dawn and Spike, the strangest of star-crossed lovers, trying to hold the powers of darkness at bay.

Years passed…names changed. This century, ancient Greece was once again popular, and so they were Eos and Astraeus, Dawn and Dusk, heralds of the light.

Eos closed her eyes and allowed herself to remember those earliest days of her life on this world. The days of love and laughter. The years of sorrow as one by one those she called family succumbed to the ravages of time. Eventually, Dawn had drifted from the descendants of her earthly family. They were too frail…too fleeting. To stay by their side meant explaining why she alone of all their family did not age. And to explain the fullness of what she was opened her family to danger they were not prepared for. It was simpler to merely walk away.

They had traveled the entire world then, her and her lover (her Guardian, her mate). And everywhere they went, they attempted to restore balance, to bring light to the dark corners of the earth.

Time begins to lose meaning to one who is immortal, and it is because of this that Eos could not quite say when things began to change…when _people_ began to change. One second, the world was filled with ignorant chattel, cowering behind their self-made delusions of safety. And then, in the blink of an eye, it seemed that people were rising up. Others, of their own free will, began to fight the darkness. In schools, children were educated about the evil things that lurk in the night (and about the evil things that lurk in the day as well).

One day, Eos realized that she was obsolete. This world no longer needed a champion…the people were their own champions. And so it was that she had brought her mate back to the place where it had all began.

"Are you ready, my love?" Eos asked with a sad (relieved) smile.

"It is time," Astraeus replied. He gave his love one final kiss before sliding a knife across her wrist.

As her blood fell to the ground, a portal opened before them. Hand-in-hand, they stepped through to take their place next to the Powers That Be.


End file.
